Universities step up overseas recruiting

Universities are recruiting overseas students in greater numbers – and not just to boost funds, they say, but to ensure a diverse student body.

Oxford University was one of several universities that charged overseas students more than £18,000 last year for lab-based subjects. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

Access to university should be based on ability to learn, not ability to pay, the prime minister, David Cameron, insisted earlier this month. Denying reports that the government would allow universities to recruit above their student number limit so long as the extra students paid higher fees, he was adamant. "There is no question of people being able to buy their way into university," he said.

But universities are already allowed to recruit extra students who pay higher fees – if those students are foreign. With students carrying more of the burden of funding in future, as home and EU tuition fees rise to up to £9,000, and with government support for humanities subjects being withdrawn, will foreign students become ever more valuable as cash cows?

"Most universities' costs are close to £9,000 or very nearly," says Les Ebdon, vice-chancellor of the University of Bedfordshire and chair of the university thinktank Million+. "Many people feel that by the time they have made provision for the spending required by access agreements and the abolition of the Hefce [Higher Education Funding Council for England] central grant, they will be getting less from home students than they are at the moment, so it makes them even more interested in the international market."

The average overseas student fee for 2010-11 was £11,435 – more than £2,700 higher than the average home/EU fee expected to be charged from 2012. Unlike for home students, there is no cap – Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial College, London, all charged more than £18,000 for lab-based subjects last year – and no obligation to ensure fair access for different social groups. Institutions can recruit as many international students as they like and recruitment is positively encouraged by the government as foreign students contribute an estimated £8bn in fees and other spending to the UK economy.

Financial forecasts published by Hefce last month showed that universities' income from overseas students had more than doubled over the last 10 years, rising to 9.6% of the higher education sector's total income by the end of 2009-10. For 2010-11, English higher education institutions aimed to increase this income still further, from £2.1bn to £2.3bn, a rise of 9.5% – higher than for any other income source.

While 21 institutions forecast a reduction in overseas income this year, they were in the clear minority, and the same number were expecting this source of income to increase by more than 25%, prompting Hefce, which will publish the sector's longer-term forecasts in July, to warn of "optimism in current growth forecasts".

Among those looking to increase overseas recruitment are Durham, which aims for a 97% increase in the number of non-EU undergraduates by 2015, increasing their proportion of the student body from 9% to 16%; Exeter, which plans a 28% rise in the same timescale – 73% in colleges other than the business school – and Middlesex, which recently won a Queen's Award for Enterprise for outstanding achievement in international trade, after growing its overseas income by £10m over the last three years. It has overseas campuses in Dubai and Mauritius and a new centre opening near Delhi in October.

Michael Driscoll, Middlesex's vice-chancellor, says: "Because of changes to the way English universities will be funded, the success of our international operations is more important than ever."

Ebdon echoes this sentiment. Bedfordshire, which also received a Queen's Award this year, has nearly trebled its number of international students in the last three years to nearly 4,000, and wants to increase this by another 1,000. "We spent some time concentrating on growing our home market and then growth in the home market was stopped, so it has been the only growth area available to us," says Ebdon.

He says that, like other universities, Bedfordshire is looking to offer a wider range of programmes on its UK campus that appeal to students from different countries, such as international business and law programmes, and possibly a degree programme in Islamic banking, and is also considering partnership arrangements with campuses overseas.

But Shaun Curtis, director of International Exeter, a new internationalisation strategy at the University of Exeter, says that his university's plans to increase overseas student numbers from just under 3,000 last year to 4,000 by 2015 is not about raising money – he argues that the shrinking differential between home and overseas student fees will actually make this less of an issue. Instead, it is about ensuring a diverse student body.

"We believe that if we want to be a global university as opposed to a national one we have to recruit the best students, not just around the UK but around the world," he says.

Exeter has just become the first British university to open an office in Bangalore, and in the last couple of years has opened offices in Shanghai and Beijing. But its Chinese offices are looking not at recruitment, but at employability options for returning Chinese and home students, raising Exeter's profile and keeping in touch with alumni.

"With the new fee regime, the pressure on universities to demonstrate value for money in the student experience is going to be immense and every good university is going to want to be able to offer a proper international experience," he says.

Durham University also insists that recruiting more international students is less about the bottom line than about ensuring that "all of our students benefit from the diverse educational environment which produces global citizens".

Matthew Andrews, academic registrar at Oxford Brookes University and chair of the Admissions Practitioners Group, says that all universities recognise the importance of having dynamic international student bodies, but they also realise that having too many overseas students could put pressure on facilities and make for a worse student experience.

As a result, he does not anticipate that the new fee regime will lead to huge increases in overseas recruitment. "Universities want to maintain their overseas numbers, and that's certainly our position at Oxford Brookes," he says.

For many institutions, simply maintaining numbers is becoming more difficult. While the exchange rate has been in their favour in recent months, they are facing increasing competition from within the UK and abroad, and must now cope with changes to the visa system.

These state that from July, foreign students at private colleges will no longer be able to work during their studies, and the right of foreign students at all institutions to work in the UK after graduating will be restricted.

Dominic Scott, chief executive of the UK Council for International Student Affairs (Ukcisa), says that these changes will make the UK a far less attractive option for overseas study and predicts that many private feeder colleges could go under by the summer, with knock-on effects for universities.

Worst hit are likely to be poorer overseas students. While foreign students from wealthier backgrounds tend to go to Russell Group institutions, he says, those who are less well-off often choose private colleges in the UK that charge much lower fees for franchised courses.

"The ones going into the private colleges will be the ones no longer entitled to work part-time," he says. "The sad thing is, those kids will suddenly realise that the package doesn't add up any more."

He suggests that some will calculate that it is worth paying a higher fee for a university course if it means they can work part-time, which could benefit some universities lower down the league tables. Others could choose to study elsewhere, or stay at home.

Whatever the government's intentions for home students, when it comes to international students, ability to pay and ability to learn have long been hard to separate.

Source: guardian.co. uk 

Dutch university sees tenfold rise in UK applicants

The number of British teenagers applying to one of Europe's leading universities has risen dramatically this year. Maastricht University in the Netherlands has seen a tenfold increase with more than 400 applications from UK students compared with just 35 at the same time last year.

A key factor in the rise is the cost of studying at Maastricht: only £1,526 a year, compared with £3,240 at present at English universities.

Many of those who applied are fearful of their chances of getting a UK place this September as the number of applications has soared as people attempt to beat the rise in tuition fees of up to £9,000 a year next September.

Maastricht University has seen 400 British teenagers apply for places this year, up from just 35 last year

Officials believe as many as 200,000 applicants could be turned down for a place in the UK next September.

Lauren Williams, 20, from Chippenham in Wiltshire, is one of hundreds of Britons attending a "speed dating" open day at Maastricht today.

Lecturers will be lined up to give details of their courses to the hundreds of UK students applying – to help them make their minds up.

In Ms Williams' case, though, she has already been accepted to study arts and culture at the university.

"To be honest, I'd never really considered Maastricht," she said. "I tried going to university last year but it didn't quite work out. Then my dad saw a piece on TV about Maastricht attracting UK students.

"Tuition fees are so much cheaper and the economy here is so much better, so there are more job prospects than in the UK."

Ms Williams, who has a B and two Cs at A-level, added: "It is really, really beautiful here. We drove across Belgium to get here and the closer we got, the more beautiful it became."

Maastricht does not close admissions for this autumn until August and is expecting the number of UK applicants to rise. Last year it eventually took 106 undergraduates – up from 64 the previous year.

Ms Williams said that successful applicants would be tested every eight weeks on their course.

"If you don't keep up, then that's it," she said. "It's one way of keeping you on your toes."

Courses are also taught in English which makes them more attractive to British applicants.

"A world of choice is opening up for well qualified students in the UK who want to stand out from the crowd," said Martin Paul, the university's president.

"Choosing a top-quality university in another country can broaden their horizons and give them an international experience that is greatly valued by employers."

Academics in the UK are predicting a massive student "brain drain" next year as students seek cheaper options overseas.

One leading state school, the Hockerill Anglo-European College in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, has already hired a student counsellor to advise school leavers on higher education opportunities overseas.

Source; The Independent 

Private college challenged over 'university' label

A private college being set up by leading academics does not have the right to use the title "university college," say government officials.

The New College for the Humanities (NCH) was launched at the weekend as an "independent university college", with plans to charge £18,000 per year.

But it does not have university college status, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Bis) says.

The college says it is going to apply to become a university college.

"New College for the Humanities is not currently a university college. The college has not yet applied to use this title," said a Bis spokesman.

Higher fees

But the college said it was able to describe itself as a university college.

"We have been advised that we may legally describe ourselves as a new independent university college, and will be working with the department to ensure that we comply with their particular guidelines on this before next autumn," said a statement from the college.

NCH plans to create a private higher-education institution in London, inviting applications for courses beginning in autumn 2012.

The college says it will recruit high-calibre students who will receive individual tuition from a group of leading academics including AC Grayling and Richard Dawkins.

They will also pay much higher prices - with fees to be set at £18,000, twice the upper limit for public universities in England. At least a fifth of students will receive financial support, says the college.

The college will not have its own degree-awarding powers, and students will take University of London degrees - under the university's international programme.

There are already 50,000 students around the world following these degree courses drawn from the curricula of 12 of the University of London's colleges.

"For most undergraduate awards this costs less than £1,500 per annum, on a full-time basis," says a statement from the University of London.

Accreditation

The University of London also issued a clarification about the links with NCH.

"To avoid any confusion, it should be made clear that NCH is not, and will not be, a part of the University of London."

And the university said there was no agreement for NCH students to have access to the University of London's Senate House library - other than the same access available to other external students.

There was also a statement from Birkbeck, University of London, saying: "Birkbeck has no links with New College and no agreement to provide New College with access to any of its facilities."

NCH says it will be applying for accreditation with the university standards watchdog, Quality Assurance Agency

If it wants to recruit overseas students, who need a student visa, the college will also have to become a registered sponsor.

Its first faculty member, Professor Grayling, says it will defend subjects threatened by budget cuts in the state sector.

"Our priorities at the college will be excellent teaching quality, excellent ratios of teachers to students, and a strongly supportive and responsive learning environment," he said.

"Our students will be challenged to develop as skilled, informed and reflective thinkers, and will receive an education to match that aspiration."

Source BBC News

40 UK universities are now breeding grounds for terror as hardline groups peddle hate on campus

England's universities have become a breeding ground for extremism and terrorist recruitment, according to a disturbing government report.

Officials have identified 40 English universities where ‘there may be particular risk of radicalisation or recruitment on campus’.

A soon to be published Whitehall report – seen by the Daily Mail – will point to a string of examples of students going on to commit terrorist acts against this country or overseas.

Alarmingly the Prevent review says that ‘more than 30 per cent of people convicted for Al Qaeda-associated terrorist offences in the UK... are known to have attended university or a higher education institution.

‘Another 15 per cent studied or achieved a vocational or further education qualification. About 10 per cent of the sample were students at the time when they were charged or the incident for which they were convicted took place.’

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk 

Lecturers may go for 'Strike' in UK

Tens of thousands of university students could have their final year exams and graduation ceremonies disrupted this summer after lecturers warned they may strike over job losses. 

The University and College Union (UCU) which represents lecturers may go for industrial action to oppose at least 14,000 job cuts on campuses across the UK. This could coincide with final exams in June and graduations later on in the year. Sally Hunt, the UCU's general secretary, speaking at the union's annual conference in Manchester, warned that if discussions about redundancies broke down, there could be a national strike. 

There have been at least 15 strikes over job losses at universities since March. Higher education institutions are grappling with cuts of £1.2bn between now and 2013. These include £200m that was slashed from their budgets last week. In March, more than three-quarters of universities in England were told they would have their budgets cut for this September – some by nearly 14%, prompting warnings of larger class sizes, further job cuts and a deterioration in the quality of courses. 

The UCU's representatives on campuses were reporting new redundancies each day, 

Hunt said she wondered how long "this will remain a local action", adding: "Soon our members will want us to take this to a national level and make a national response too." 

Academics at Westminster University have said they will not mark essays and exams in protest over plans to cut 50 posts. A university spokesman said it was taking "every reasonable measure to minimise the impact" on students. 

Meanwhile, academics today accused the government of forcing them to spy on international students. They claim new visa rules, under which academics must report an overseas student who fails to enrol, miss lectures or drops out of a course, are against academic freedom. The rules were devised so officials could keep track of the whereabouts of international students. 

Lecturers called for the union to put up a legal challenge to the points-based immigration scheme. They said they would be prepared to appeal to the European court of human rights if necessary. 

Courtesy guardian.co.uk

Elite universities ponder over 'bond issues' to raise funds

The UK's elite universities are considering proposals that would allow them to raise potentially hundreds of millions of pounds on the financial markets by issuing bonds . 

Selling the bonds – long-term debts issued by companies – would enable them to reduce their deficits and dependency on the taxpayer. A university would have to pay back, with interest, the amount it borrows – likely to be £100m or more – on a specific date in say 30 or even 50 years time. 

The Russell Group of 20 leading universities including Oxford and Cambridge state that, at present, the state does not provide sufficient funds to cover the cost of teaching undergraduates and universities are left with a shortfall. It says institutions that raised cash in this way would be far less dependent on taxpayers' money. A group of universities would allow a large bond issue, capable of attracting "major investors", it said. The bonds could even be marketed to alumni, who might be encouraged to buy them at lower than market rates. 

The Russell Group made the argument for issuing bonds in its submission to a cross-party review on university funding and tuition fees led by Lord Browne, the former BP chief executive. The review will report in the autumn. 

Fram Dinshaw, finance bursar at St Catherine's College, Oxford University, said this would be a good idea, if the loan was "properly structured", because it would be "a way out of the dependency on state funds". 

In January this year, it was revealed that Cambridge University was planning to raise up to £400m from its first bond issue. Ivy League universities in the US, such as Harvard and Princeton, have issued bonds for several years. 

One problem which may arise is that bond markets are inflexible and can make it impossible to pay back the debt early. 

courtesy Guardian.co.uk

Regulations to set 'Standards' of Universities in UK

Students have a right to expect contact time with lecturers and reasonable class sizes, says vice- chancellor 

Universities would face financial penalties if their lecturers teach for only a few hours a week, or class sizes exceed an acceptable limit as it appears in the future. Professor Paul Wellings, chair of the 1994 Group of 19 small research-intensive universities, recommended all students be given minimum expectations of contact hours with lecturers, class sizes and feedback. Wellings, the vice-chancellor of Lancaster University, was giving evidence to a cross-party review into tuition fees, led by the former BP chief executive Lord Browne. The review will report this autumn. Wellings said the Higher Education Funding Council for England, the organisation that gives public funds to universities, should issue penalties if institutions fail to live up to students' expectations will be chaged.

courtesy guardian.co.uk

Increase in Admission Indian Students in UK universities

Press Trust of India, Friday April 2, 2010, London

The number of Indian students getting admission in courses in British universities rose by almost a third in the previous academic year, according to official figures. More than 34,000 students from  India studied at British higher education institutions in 2008-09, up 31.5 per cent on the year before. William Lawton, policy adviser at the  UK Higher Education International Unit, said, "The predicted fall in our share of the global market - as a result of other countries wooing  international students - does not seem to have happened." Recruitment may have been helped by a weaker pound, he added, "but it most likely reflects a reputation for good quality and sustained brand strength". The Higher Education Statistics Agency figures also show that Nigerian nationals have overtaken Americans to become the third most numerous overseas-student population in Britain. A total of 14,380 Nigerians came to the UK to study in 2008-09, a 22 per cent increase on the previous year, compared with 14,345 from the US. Arrivals from Saudi Arabia showed the most dramatic rise, up 47.2 per cent. However, this was from a relatively low base, from 3,535 students to 5,205. Students from mainland China remained the largest overseas group at 47,035 - up 3.7 per cent on the year before. However, numbers from Taiwan fell 6.8 per cent to 5,235, and from Hong Kong by 1 per cent to 9,600. Allaying fears that the UK may be losing its grip on the international student market due to it’s point immigration system,  total numbers from outside the European Union who pay the highest fees rose by 9.4 per cent, topping 250,000. Numbers from within the EU rose by 4.9 per cent to 117,660.

Multi-billion dollar international fake diploma fraud

 A new Report published on 21^st  exposes a multi-billion dollar international fake diploma fraud.

The ‘Accredibase Report' by Eyal Ben Cohen and Rachel Winch of Verifile Limited,is a report based on an 18-month international research project into diploma and accreditation mills - fake Universities and Colleges which con students out of their money and supply fake degrees that deceive employers into offering jobs, sometimes  fatal consequences.

Up till  1,762 fake institutions have been identified , and a  further 1,545 are under investigation currently filed as ‘suspicious' co-author Eyal Ben Cohen

Alarmingly, the US was found to be the world's fake college capital, with 810 diploma mills already declared fake  and many more still under investigation as the Report went to press. More than 35 percent of the diploma mills operate in California, Hawaii, Washington and Florida.UK is the the world's second biggest hub  of fake colleges , the Report exposing 271 bogus institutions, making the UK the centre of Europe's bogus colleges scam.

The British government  has said that it  welcomes any innovative approach that further helps to disrupt the activities of bogus education providers, simultaneously  safeguarding legitimate education and the public."

Multiple ‘fake university businesses' are often run from one address - The ‘St. Regis University' network ran as many as 121 phony institutions all from a single office in Spokane, Washington. This allows the fraudsters to easily shut down one business if the authorities become suspicious, while suffering minimal disruption to the huge profits being generated. Official estimates that the fraudsters are earning  more than $100m every year in only one year of operation.

Fake degrees can help terrorists to infiltrate facilities by securing them jobs inside the country

The ‘con' becomes more sophisticated with fake universities setting up fake accreditation bodies in an attempt to make their qualifications look genuine. These accreditation bodies  may hide their location to make it more difficult to establish their legitimacy.