Regional

Erasmus Funding for 2013 Secured Despite EU Budget Deficits

Europe’s flagship academic mobility scheme was saved from a funding shortfall at the last minute in December with the European Parliament rubber-stamping a deal agreed a few days earlier by EU ministers.

Funding for the European Union’s (EU) Erasmus student exchange program had been caught up in a budget deadlock lasting months. At a certain stage in the budget negotiations it had seemed likely that Erasmus would be forced to cut students’ grants in 2013. However, the funding deal is a stopgap measure only, and there could be a new crisis in a year’s time.

The root cause of the problem is the pressure on domestic budgets now being felt across Europe, which has made many of the 27 EU member states hostile to any increase in EU spending. Efforts to agree on the multi-year deal failed in December and will be resumed in 2013. The agreed budget for 2013 includes a 6.4 percent increase in EU research and development funding as well as funds to keep the Lifelong Learning Program running.

– University World News
December 14, 2012

Private Equity Pumps $100 Million Into Student Recruitment Market

INTO University Partnerships helps recruit international students to campuses in the United States and other English-speaking nations, and, in what may be seen as a sign of the times, it recently announced an investment of more than US$100 million from a private-equity firm.

The seven-year-old British company not only recruits students for its 15 college and university partners, but it also develops ‘pathway’ programs for them. INTO will distribute some of the investment, from Leeds Equity Partners, to its private shareholders and use the rest to help expand its business.

Jeffrey T. Leeds, the private-equity firm’s president and co-founder, said the investment represented a sign of the growing importance of international markets. “We think it is a growth area as a lot of countries develop larger middle classes,” he said on Tuesday.

– INTO University Partnerships news release
January 15, 2013

Denmark

Government Encourages Study Abroad with Loan Initiative

The Danish government has launched a new loan program designed to help defray the costs of studying abroad as part of a broader effort to encourage Danish students to study abroad.

Under the new program, students will be able to borrow up to DKK100,000 (US$17,300) in low-interest loans with long repayment periods. This will help close the gap in current loan programs for study abroad, which on average cover 75 percent of costs.

In 2009-2010, 9,825 Danish students were studying abroad, with just over a third on full-degree programs. The number of international students in Denmark the same year was 24,485, nearly two-thirds of who were studying for full degrees.

Establishing a new common quality assurance system among Danish universities and academic recognition of studies abroad are also part of the government’s comprehensive strategic plan for the internationalization of higher education.

– PIE News
November 26, 2012

Germany

Germany Becoming A Magnet for Well-Educated Immigrants

Immigrants to Germany are today better educated and find it easier to get a job than has been the case in the past, a new survey has revealed.

Researchers from the Institute for Employment Research in Nuremberg (IAB) recorded a sharp rise in the number of educated immigrants arriving in Germany with at least an undergraduate degree over the past seven years. The percentage of immigrants coming to Germany with a degree rose from 30 percent in 2005 to 44 percent by 2009, according to the report.

The report also found that not only are immigrants better educated today than in the past, but they are also more likely to get a job commensurate with their education and training than those who have been in the country for longer. Of the new immigrants, men from EU countries were best off in terms of employment prospects, said the IAB, with an employment rate similar to that of male Germans not from immigrant backgrounds. Yet people moving to Germany from outside the EU had a much harder time securing a job, something IAB report authors Holger Seibert and Rüdiger Wapler said was due to “formal hurdles” barring access to employment for many non-EU citizens. Also, these immigrants were more likely to make the move to Germany for family or humanitarian reasons, rather than on the basis of a concrete offer of employment.

– The Local
November 26, 2012

International Enrollments Top 250,000

The number of foreign students in Germany increased by 75,000 to 250,000 in the first decade of the new millennium, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research announced in January. The milestone of a quarter million foreign students in Germany was passed for the first time in 2012.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Andreas Peschke pointed out that overseas demand for German language courses has risen sharply in recent years. In Turkey today, for example, about 90 percent of the students who study a second foreign language choose German. China is another growth area; German courses in middle schools there are on the rise and there are 23,000 Chinese students in Germany. There are plans in the near future to offer German in 1,000 schools in India, which would mean around one million more Indian students learning German, said Peschke.

– German Embassy U.S.
January 9, 2013

United Kingdom

New Wave of Universities Coming

Twelve to 13 “new” universities will be created in England in both the private and public sectors, marking the first time in 20 years that a new wave of universities has been established.

Ten are long-established specialist institutions that will be awarded full university status, while two, possibly three, private colleges are also expected to be made universities, though not all will be for-profit.

The Universities and Science Minister David Willetts has announced the names of the state institutions in line to be made universities. They are:

• Arts University College at Bournemouth
• Bishop Grosseteste University College Lincoln
• Harper Adams University College
• Leeds Trinity University College
• Newman University College, Birmingham
• Norwich University College of the Arts
• Royal Agricultural College
• University College Birmingham
• University College Falmouth
• University College Plymouth St. Mark & St. John

The government says the change – and increasing private provision – are part of a drive to promote diversity in the university sector which will improve standards and student choice. But critics say the expansion of profit-seeking companies will damage it.

In addition to the state institutions that will, or already have, gained university titles, a few private ones will too. The College of Law announced in November that it had been granted the title. It is changing its name to the University of Law and is set to be England’s first fully-fledged university to be allowed to make a profit. Non-profit Regent’s College in London is also expected to be awarded the title, in addition to at least one other profit-making institution.

– BBC News
November 27, 2012

Final 2011/12 Enrollment Data Show Slowdown in International Growth, Record Drop in Domestic Uptake, Troubling International Trends for Language and FE

Final data on international student enrollments in 2011/12, released by the UK’s Higher Education Statistics Agency, shows a slowing growth trend, with the total number of international students in the U.K. increasing by just 1.6 percent in 2011-12, a slowdown from the 5.5 percent growth rate the year before. Total non-EU enrollments grew just slightly in 2011/12 from 298,110 to 302,680

Growth from the UK’s top sending country, China, was strong again (up 16.9 percent); however, the number from India, the second-largest sending country, dropped a massive 23.5 percent. There were also double-digit decreases in the numbers of students from Pakistan (-13.4 percent from the year before), Ireland (-10.5 percent), and Poland (-14.1 percent). Contrary to the continuing boom in Saudi enrollments at U.S. universities, UK universities saw a decline of 4 percent from this previously growing market.

The new figures go part way to confirming fears that changes to visa laws and post-study work options have negatively impacted the UK’s education export industry. Nonetheless, there was vigorous 13 percent growth in transnational – or offshore – provision, with the number of students enrolled on a British program outside the country rising from 503,795 to 571,010.

Domestically, higher tuition fees took their toll on enrollments among UK students, with a record fall in the number of people taking up places at UK universities in 2011/12. Nearly 54,000 fewer people started programs in 2012 than did in 2011, the central admissions body UCAS says. The sharpest drops were seen in England, where maximum fees have almost trebled to £9,000 a year (US$15,000), with a 6.6 percent fall.

A final set of recently released data, this time on student visa issuances, suggests international student numbers in the UK will soon start declining. Visa applications to study at language schools fell by a massive 76 percent in 2012 and at further education colleges by 67 percent. The Office of National Statistics revealed in November that the total number of visas issued in the year ending September 2012 fell from 284,650 to 210,920, nearly all of the drop accounted for by falling visa applications to study at language schools (from 15,930 to 3,750) and public and private FE colleges (from 99,295 to 32,900).

There was a slight uptick in applications for visas to study in higher education – up from 154,575 to 155,821. Nonetheless, with the important role that language schools, FE colleges and independent schools (also down 17 percent) play as pathways to UK universities, the visa figures look troubling for the international higher education sector moving forward.

– Higher Education Statistics Agency
January11, 2012

English Students Looking Overseas in Increasing Numbers

There has been increasing evidence over the past year to suggest that a growing number of English undergraduate students are looking at overseas study options in the face of increased costs at home.

English tuition fees are currently the highest in the European Union and recent research has calculated the cost of both tuition fees and living expenses for UK students to be behind that of studying in only Australia, Canada and the United States. The study calculates the average cost of studying in England in 2012-13 to be £15,586 (US$24,800), which is essentially the same (£15,670) as it would cost to study in Canada (a sum that includes flights from the UK).

In Europe, there are many significantly cheaper options for UK students. In Ireland, for example, students from the EU are required to pay only a small contribution towards the cost of their degree (around £1,760 per annum), while in The Netherlands the costs are even lower (often about £1,330 per annum).

During 2012, Irish universities saw a considerable rise in applications from the UK: those to Trinity College Dublin, for example, increased by 20 percent to 2,000, while those at University College Dublin increased by 37 percent, to around 1,000. Similar increases have been reported by various universities in mainland Europe. The University of Groningen in The Netherlands has reported a quadrupling of applications from UK students over the past two years, while Swedish universities have also reported considerable increases.

UK students are also being targeted more directly by overseas universities: the number of American institutions exhibiting at USA College Day has increased by over 80 percent over the past three years, while many more European universities are offering programs taught entirely in English, and the marketing strategies of overseas institutions often focus specifically on fee differentials.

– British Politics and Policy blog of the London School of Economics
November 14, 2012

Private Indian University Eyes London Campus

A private Indian university plans to open a campus for 15,000 foreign students in London, it was announced in November by Boris Johnson, the city’s mayor, while on a tour of India.

Amity University said it hopes to attract the brightest students and academics from around the world to its new residential campus in the capital. It is understood that if the proposals go ahead the campus could cost up to £100 million (US$160 million).

Amity chancellor Atul Chauhan received the vocal backing of the London mayor, who described the proposals as “exciting.” With tougher student visa restrictions introduced last year to prevent bogus colleges being used as a cover by low-skilled workers abusing the system to work in the UK, Chauhan will need the mayor’s support.

– The Independent
November 26, 2012

More Visa Interviews for Prospective International Students from April

More people applying for visas to study in the UK are to undergo face-to-face interviews, rather than just paper checks, the government has said. According to the Home Secretary, Theresa May, from next April border staff would question more than 100,000 people to “root out abuse” of the system, while maintaining the UK as a destination for study.

She pledged to help end the use of visas as a “backdoor route” to work. The government says it has tightened up the rules on students from outside the European Economic Area applying for visas, arguing that it is essential to prevent “overstayers,” who use studying as an excuse to remain and work in the country, but some institutions have complained that the change makes it harder to attract bright applicants, who opt to go elsewhere.

Potential students are likely to be quizzed on their knowledge of English and details of the program they are planning to study. The home secretary also announced that from April non-European PhD students who have completed their studies at UK universities will be automatically allowed to stay on for a year while trying to find a job or start a business, so the UK can benefit from their skills.

– BBC News
December 12, 2012

Fee Hike Leads to Closure of One in Five University Programs

Market forces are now clearly at play in the brave new world of UK higher education, with one in five degree programs having been scrapped since the announcement of the tripling of tuition fees to £9,000 (US$14,481) two years ago.

Official figures show a cull of more than 2,600 in the number of programs available to applicants planning to start their degrees in 2013, with universities concentrating on popular subjects and dropping programs that have too few applicants or are too expensive to run. More than 5,200 programs had already been removed for students beginning this year – the first cohort to face the higher fees. The total number of courses listed by UCAS has fallen from 43,360 to 35,501 in two years.

– Daily Mail
December 2, 2012

2013 University Applicant Numbers Stable Domestically, Up Significantly from Abroad Despite Tuition Increases and Immigration Reform

Almost 559,000 students made applications to British universities by the official mid-January deadline – up by 3.5 percent versus the same time last year, according to official figures from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS). The overall numbers were driven in large part by strong growth from foreign students, with applications up almost 10 percent among non-EU students, allaying fears that tighter immigration regulations might be deterring them from studying in the UK.

Government officials used the figures to suggest that the imposition of tuition fees of up to £9,000 (US$14,500) for the first time in 2012 had failed to have a long-term impact on student numbers. But critics warned that the figures did not represent a “bounce-back,” insisting that overall numbers were still lower than levels seen in 2010 or 2011, before the introduction of higher fees.

China continues to send the largest numbers of students to British universities and applicant numbers were up by roughly 25 percent from Malaysia this year. Among British students alone, some 475,587 applications were made to UK universities by mid-January. This was up by 13,080 – 2.8 percent – on the same point last year. But applications from within the UK were down 4.8 percent on 2010 – before the new fees regime was introduced.

– UCAS
January 30, 2013