Brazil

New Scholarships for Pakistan

Sixty-three Brazilian universities are to offer Pakistani students scholarships to study in Brazil, through a scheme announced in August. The scholarships stipulate that the awardee must return to their home countries after study.

“This requirement to serve their country of origin upon graduation is proof that this is not a brain drain scholarship project but one that actually aims to help developing countries benefit from their human capital,” said Brazilian envoy Alfredo Leoni.

The scholarships are offered in wide range of subjects including: medicine, engineering, business administration and international relations.

– The PIE News
August 5, 2013

U.S. Company Acquires Brazilian University Chain

The U.S.-based educational group Laureate Education Inc. agreed in August to acquire Brazilian university chain FMU for US$412 million. The educational groups confirmed the deal in a joint statement, but didn’t unveil the value of the acquisition, which was confirmed by an executive involved in the negotiation, who declined to be named.

FMU has 90,000 students and annual revenue of approximately $200 million. Laureate has a total of 780,000 students across 29 countries throughout North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, North Africa and the Middle East, according to its website. Laureate has been in Brazil since 2005, when it acquired control of Anhembi Morumbi.

The rapidly growing educational services market in Brazil is attracting the interest of investors, including international players, especially as the middle class in the country expands. The Brazilian market for private educational services has grown rapidly over the past decade because of economic expansion and upward social mobility.

Brazil’s economy has slowed since 2011 and it is expected to expand less than 2.5 percent in 2013. However, there is still a lot of room for growth in the education sector in Brazil. According to data provided by Kroton last April, only 14.3 percent of Brazilians aged 18 to 24 are studying at the university level. Brazil’s government aims at bringing that figure up to 33 percent by 2020.

– Wall Street Journal
August 23, 2013

Canada

BC’s International Graduate Visa Scheme Extended Indefinitely

British Columbia’s International Post-Graduates (IPG) pilot visa scheme is to become a permanent category of the Provincial Nominee Program, it was announced in August. The project aims to attract and retain highly skilled international graduates in the science and technology fields by enabling them to apply for permanent residence in Canada.

The move is in response to concerns that the province may face significant skilled-worker shortages over the next decade, following a 20 percent decline in economic immigration over the last five years. The shortages are expected to be most severe in the information technology and health science fields, with the technology sector being the fastest growing in the province.

The program allows graduates from natural, applied or health sciences masters and PhD programs at BC institutions to apply for Permanent Resident status before receiving an offer of full-time employment. The pilot scheme has proved successful, with 91 percent of IPG nominees either in employment or pursuing further advanced studies, and 93 percent continuing to live in the province. Moreover, 88 percent of employed nominees work in an occupation directly related to their graduate degree.

– BC News Release
August 2, 2013

Record International Enrollments in 2012

According to figures released this summer by the Canadian government, 2012 was a record-breaking year for international enrollments at Canadian universities. For the first time in the country’s history, over 100,000 permits were issued to new international students.

Canada’s popularity among international students has seen a sharp rise in recent years. The 2012 data represent a full 60 percent increase from 2004, and the number of new students has the capacity to increase by 7 percent every successive year, according to a news release from Citizenship and Immigration Canada. In total, there are currently around 260,000 international students in the country, studying both full and part time.

Instructional quality, the relatively low cost of living, high visa acceptance rates, and good post-graduation work and residence options have all been cited as part of the appeal of studying in Canada.

– CIC News
July 2013

Colombia

Setting Up as a Spanish Language Study Destination

Making good on the claim that Colombians speak “the best” Spanish in the world, the government has launched a campaign to double Spanish language learners in the country by 2014 and become the leading Spanish language destination in Latin America.

Implemented by the Ministries of Education and Culture, the initiative is part of president Juan Manuel Santos’s Government Plan for Democratic Prosperity outlining 110 objectives to boost employment and the economy. President Santos confirmed that the campaign takes advantage of the country’s linguistic reputation. “That’s why we established becoming the best Spanish language destination as one of our government objectives.”

An estimated 1,800 international students, mostly from Southeast Asia, go to Colombia to study Spanish every year but the government is keen to double that figure by 2014. Marketing is already underway targeting students at study abroad fairs in Brazil, Jamaica and along the east coast of the USA. Efforts will be centered around a web portal launched in August in four languages listing universities that offer Spanish as a foreign language courses including Universidad Nacional, Universidad de los Andes and Escuela de Ingeniería de Antioquia.

– The PIE News
August 21, 2013

Peru

Disadvantaged Peruvians Provided Scholarship Opportunities to Study Abroad

As a part of the “Beca 18” scholarship program, 100 disadvantaged Peruvian students will be offered bursaries to study at international universities. The scholarship program seeks out Peruvians from poor backgrounds with strong academic records. The scholarships will cover not only the cost of tuition fees, but also living and equipment costs.

In 2012, the scholarship was awarded to 5,000 students from the poorest, most isolated provinces of the country. In total, the program currently supports 11,140 scholarship recipients domestically. Under the new international program, the best of the recipients will be provided with scholarships to study at the graduate level in universities in Spain, the United States, Mexico and Argentina, reported La República.

One of the requirements for these students is that after receiving their education in Peru or abroad, they return to their home region to work for at least three years.

– Peru This Week
July 15, 2013

United States

International Graduate Admissions Rise Despite Slowdown in Applications

Graduate schools in the United States made more offers of admission to international students this year than they did last year despite an overall slowdown in applications, according to the annual application and offers of admission reports from the Council of Graduate Schools.

The offers of admission report released in August says offers of admissions to international applicants grew at a steady pace of 9 percent from 2012 to 2013, making it the fourth consecutive year of growth. Nonetheless, an earlier report showed that during the same time period, applications from overseas grew only 2 percent, much lower than in previous years. That slowdown is largely due to a 3 percent decline in applications from China, which sends the largest number of undergraduates and graduate students to the United States. Application numbers were propped up by a surge in interest from India, which sends the second-largest number of students to American graduate schools.

The increase in the overall number of offers of admission to U.S. graduate schools was driven by a 27 percent increase in initial offers of admission to prospective students from India. Admission offers also grew by 5 percent to prospective students from China. The data for fall 2013 marks the eighth year in a row of increases in the number of offers of admission for prospective Chinese students. Offers of admission to students from the Middle East rose 12 percent, marking the sixth year of significant growth, and offers of admission to Brazilian students rose 46 percent. However, offers of admission to students from South Korea, the third largest sending country of international students to U.S. graduate programs, declined 10 percent.

For the first time as part of its data collecting, the council asked some of its members to identify the causes behind changes in overseas applications. Among those that experienced large decreases, the reasons most often cited were increased competition, including from online programs and foreign institutions, and money problems, like the uncertainty of financial aid for prospective students. With those that reported an increase in applications, many cited new foreign-recruitment efforts as a factor.

– The Council of Graduate Schools
August 22, 2013

US Graduate Schools Dependent on Foreign Students in STEM Fields

International students make up almost two thirds of graduate students in key science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields at U.S. universities, however a slowdown in enrollments could be putting the economy at risk a new report from the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) argues.

Foreign students make up 70.3 percent of all full-time graduate students in electrical engineering, 63.2 percent in computer science, 60.4 percent in industrial engineering, and more than 50 percent in chemical, materials and mechanical engineering, as well as in economics (a non-STEM field). However, the report, which analyzes National Science Foundation enrollment data from 2010 by field and institution, also shows that these striking averages mask even higher proportions at many individual universities. For example, there are 36 graduate programs in electrical engineering where the proportion of international students exceeds 80 percent, including seven where it exceeds 90 percent.

Findings by NFAP also show how international students provide cultural benefits to U.S. institutions and are an inexpensive way to promote the U.S. abroad. The report also emphasizes the value that international students can bring to the U.S. economy after graduation as researchers and entrepreneurs. Measures that would make it easier for STEM graduate students to obtain visas to work in the U.S. after graduation are pending in Congress.

Legislation was recently passed in the U.S. Senate that would allow permanent visas for foreign STEM graduates and increase caps on post-study work visas for highly skilled workers. The bill is now awaiting a vote in the House of Republicans but faces strong opposition from Republican leaders, who have proposed alternative immigration reform policies including the SKILLS Visa Act (HR 2131), which would allocate 55,000 green cards for STEM graduates.

–Inside Higher Ed
July 12, 2013

Community Colleges Increasingly Attractive for Chinese Students

Chinese students studying in the United States are increasingly choosing to attend two-year community colleges and then transferring to four-year universities to get their bachelor’s degrees, in order to save money, China Daily USA reports.

According to the report, Washington State’s Green River Community College, Shoreline Community College, and Seattle Central Community College have received an influx of students from China, and work hard to make sure the students gain access to four-year institutions after graduating from the two-year schools.

Tuition at publicly supported community colleges can be one-third to one-quarter of university tuition. For the schools, they increase the diversification of their student body and get higher tuition for the non-US citizens. The tuition is enough incentive for some two-year colleges to make regular recruitment trips to China and promote themselves as a pathway to a bachelor’s degree. Washington State’s proximity to China makes it an attractive destination for Chinese students. The number of Chinese students at Green River leaped to 562 this year from 8 in 2007.

According to the American Association of Community Colleges, 13 percent of all international students enrolled in two-year community colleges in 2012 were from China, making it No 2 among all countries sending students to US community colleges (South Korea is No 1). At Green River, from 2006 to June 8, 2013, 451 Chinese students successfully transferred to four-year universities and 276 of them were accepted by the top 100 US schools, according to US News & World Report’s education issue in 2012.

– China Daily, USA
June 21, 2013