CANBERRA -- China and the United States were the most popular destinations for Australian students when considering short-term overseas study, a report has found.

The number of Australian university students opting to study overseas has doubled in five years, according to the report.

The study released by the Australian Universities International Directors' Forum on Wednesday revealed that 49,263 students spent time studying overseas in 2017, up from 24,763 in 2012.

However, a majority of those students were spending a relatively short time abroad. The study found that 23 percent of those who studied overseas in 2017 were away from Australia for two weeks or less, 34 percent between two and four weeks and 15 percent between four and 10 weeks.

Approximately 20 percent spent an entire semester studying overseas while only 3 percent were away for a full year.

Except for China and the United States, other popular destinations included Britain, Japan, Indonesia and Malaysia.

A vast majority, or 71 percent, of the students who went overseas to study were completing an undergraduate degree.

Those undertaking degrees in the health sector were the most likely to study overseas, accounting for 17 percent of the total, followed by management and commerce (15 percent), science (9 percent), engineering (8 percent) and creative arts (7 percent).