EDUCATION NEWS

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EDUCATION NEWSRECORD NUMBER OF BRAZILIANS EXPECTED TO STUDY ABROAD IN 2012

SUMMER 2012 EDITIONPUBLISHED BY BMI FOR THE INTERNATIONAL STUDENT RECRUITMENT PROFESSION

Brazil, which has recently overtaken the UK to become the world’s sixth-largest economy, is booming and the huge cash reserves built up from the strong growth and economic performance in recent years is being used to fund a massive new scholarship program. However, the majority of Brazilians who travel abroad have little need for scholarships and over 365,000 Brazilians are expected to travel abroad in 2012, according to August 2011 survey of 447 Brazilian educational agents conducted by BMI.

The fi ndings of the survey are confi rmed in recent interviews given to The PIE by directors of two of Brazil’s largest educational agencies. “Brazil’s booming economy and the ability of the ‘class C ‘ social class to now afford study abroad is the chief driver of rising interest in study abroad opportunities” according to Santuza Bicalho, CEO of STB, Brazil´s largest study abroad agency. She went on to say, “We believe that Brazil is going to explode in terms of sales!”

Patrick Guimaraes, President IE Intercambio echoed the same thoughts in his interview

with The Professionals in International Education (PIE) website last month. “We’re expecting a growth this year of 30%. In the fi rst two months (of 2012), we already grew business by over 35% and January and February are very slow months in Brazil because of Carnival!”

More than ever Brazilians are being recognised as important international consumers who are not afraid to spend on luxury consumer items, including an international education. In 2010, 1.1 million Brazilians travelled to the

United States and they were the foreign group that spent the most per capita in 2010: $5.9 billion or nearly $5,000 per person. In 2011, Brazilian tourists spent a record 21.2 billion dollars abroad, which was a 28% increase on 2010.

USA Opens New Brazilian Consulate

This increased spending has not gone unnoticed and on January 19th 2012, President Obama singled out Brazil in an announcement of a new national strategy on travel and

Saudi extends scholarship scheme to 2020

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Critics slam Canada’s closure of six visa offi ces

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NZ to launch 10-day visa processing

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Record number of brazilians expected to Study abroad in 2012

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Asian Invasion

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Inside educity Iskandar: A university partnership in Malaysia

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Brazilian Higher Education Workshop between Brazilian and overses universities

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Britain’s pointless cap on talent

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English-only postgraduate courses at Milan polytechnic spark protest

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Choosing the right international student recruitment fairt

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World’S Top 100 Universities

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Latin american countries push more students to study abroad

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Brazil’s “Science Without Borders” scholarship program explained

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New agent workshops in USA & China and VIP program for agencies

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Saudi Arabia is to extend its King Abdullah Scholarship Programme, with the aim of helping 50,000 Saudis graduate from the world’s top 500 universities by 2020.

The scheme would continue to prioritise subjects that helped

Saudi build a “knowledge economy”

The programme, which was launched in 2005 and slated to run until 2014, has been a boon for international education providers. A sizable 87,844 the 130,397 Saudis currently

...continued on pg 4 >

...continued on pg 2 >

by Dan Thomas, The PIE News

SAUDI EXTENDS SCHOLARSHIPS TO 2020

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Brazil overtakes the UK to become world’s sixth-largest economy as USA issues 62% more visas in March 2012 copared to same period last year.

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May 11, 2012 by Sara Custer

The Canadian government has closed six visa offi ces abroad in what it says is a step toward streamlining and modernising immigration and citizenship operations. Critics say the move complicates foreign relations and will affect Canada’s ability to attract foreign students.

On 30 April Citizenship and Immigration Canada announced the Visa and Immigration Sections at the Canadian Embassies in Germany, Japan, and Iran and the Canadian High Commissions in Malaysia and Bangladesh would close to the public. An additional offi ce was closed in Serbia on 9 May.

“This can destroy years of hard work of establishing relationships and investment with these countries”

“Under the rationale of modernization, with no consultation and seemingly little thought or direction, these important visa offi ces are being shuttered,” wrote Randall Martin, the executive director of the British Columbia Council for International Education in a highly critical editorial for The Province. “Each closure represents a huge economic loss to B.C. and Canadian economies.”

In addition to longer than normal waiting times (almost 13 weeks) students must now submit applications to offi ces in different countries – a move critics say is culturally insensitive.

“Why couldn’t the applications simply be sent to Canada as opposed to moving them around to different countries?” Languages CanadaExecutive Director Gonzalo Peralta said.

“There’s no assurance that any of the processes are going to be respected in terms of time or quality. How does a visa offi cer in Manila understand the Japanese reality? We’re not speaking about numbers here. We’re speaking about cultures.”

International education accounts for more than CAN$6.5 billion nationally and for over 83,000 direct jobs. Some fear the new closures will compel

students to take their money to competitors like the USA or Australia which have recently taken measures to ease the student visa process.

“There is an unsurprising and direct correlation between the ease of accessing a student visa and the ability or desire of a student and her family to make the effort and choose to study in a given jurisdiction,” said Martin. “Every obstacle that is put in the way renders another decision easier.”

“How does a visa offi cer in Manila understand the Japanese reality?”

To add insult to injury, diplomats and industry players were not informed about the closures until after the fact.

“I’m surprised, yes, very surprised,” Malaysian High Commissioner Hayati Binti Ismail told Postmedia News. “For us, it’s going to cause a bit of trouble.” She added that 800 Malaysians studying in Canada will be affected.

Similarly, Bangladesh’s top diplomat in Canada charge d’affaires Nahida Shumona, said she also didn’t know the Canadian visa offi ce in her country was being closed until reading about it in the news.

“We’re not against streamlining. In fact we’ve been asking for it,” said Peralta. “But it’s how it’s done that can be insulting and [this can] destroy years and years of hard work of establishing relationships and investment with these countries.”

Saudi extends scholarship scheme to 2020> continued from pg 1...

studying abroad were said to have received scholarships through the programme.

A further 14,103 were given civil service scholarships, while just 16,596 university and 11,854 English language students were self funded.

INTO University Partnerships, a leading university pathway provider in the UK and US that benefi ts from the scheme, welcomed the news.

“There has been an increase in the numbers almost every year since the King Abdullah Scholarship Programme programme was launched in 2005, and this

represents yet another boost to the number of Saudis heading overseas,” said Tuukka Hinttula, recruitment director Middle East, Africa and South Asia.

“The opportunities are particularly good to the US providers for now… our numbers in the USA in particular have grown tremendously over the last two years,” he said, adding that the focus had shifted away from the UK market.

Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Mousa, undersecretary at the Saudi Ministry of Higher Education for Scholarships, said this week that the scheme would continue to prioritise subjects that helped Saudi build a “knowledge economy”, such as medicine, engineering and science, signalling a further move away from humanities.

Currently 70 per cent of scholarship students study subjects such as business administration, engineering, information technology and medicine.

The King Abdullah programme was originally launched after the number of Saudi students in the US plummeted to a low of just 1,008 in 2004, following visa restrictions implemented after the 9/11 terror attacks (15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis).

Since then it has successfully helped rebuild relations between the countries. Al-Mousa said that the conduct of Saudi overseas students had improved

stereotypes of Saudi society abroad, with many students setting up volunteer and charity organisations in the US, Canada and Britain.

Despite the promising rises in Saudi study abroad traffi c, Saudi students can still face lengthy visa processing times in some countries. Protesting at delays at the Canadian embassy in Riyadh last September, Saudi Arabia increased waiting times for Canadians applying for Saudi visas to 30-45 days. Citizenship and Immigration Canada blamed a surge in applications, but others said that post 9/11 security checks remained a driver.

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CRITICS SLAM CANADA’S CLOSURE OF SIX VISA OFFICES

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In a bid to boost international numbers, New Zealand has agreed to speed up visa processing for those wanting to study in New Zealand – but only if they use government endorsed agents. From the end of July, international students who use a New Zealand Specialist Agent(NZSA) will have their visa applications processed within 10 working days, compared with 30 days (the current average waiting time) through other agents.

NZSA agents will also be given a dedicated point of contact withinImmigration New Zealand branches, with whom they can discuss student visa applications before they are submitted.

“The international education industry is worth just over $2 billion to New Zealand’s economy. It is a bridge between New Zealand and the

world. We want to double the economic and social benefits that international education brings over the next 15 years,” Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce said in astatement this week.

“Only by the government working closely with the sector, and developing initiatives such as this that support growth, will we achieve that goal.”

Launched in 2007, the New Zealand Specialist Education Agent scheme is designed to raise the efficacy of education agents promoting New Zealand abroad. NZSAs undergo training, agree to an ethical code of conduct, and are officially recognised by New Zealand government agencies and education institutions.

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NZ TO LAUNCH 10-DAY VISA PROCESSINGMay 14, 2012 by Dan Thomas, The PIE News

However, only around 30-40% of international students in the country come through NZSA’s, suggesting many won’t benefit from the faster processing times. Irene Hamer, a spokesperson for Education New Zealand, said tying faster processing to NZSA’s would “encourage and motivate good performing agents” to join the scheme.

Yousef Bayyoud, of NZSA-member International Group for Educational Consultancy in Saudi Arabia, said: “At the moment I have to sent applications to Dubai and it takes around 20 days, although it differs from case to case. Ten days will give me good results… The US sometimes offers visas in three days so it’s competitive.”

However, he said most of his work was with Saudis who did not pose many visa

problems. “I’ve faced delays with other nationalities such as Yemenis or Jordanians. I’ve had to wait up to two or three months in the past for New Zealand visas. So I hope this new processing applies to all nationalities,” he said.

As part of its mission to boost education exports, the New Zealand government wants to double the number of postgraduate students coming to the country and improve transition to residence rates among other measures over the next 15 years.

Recent efforts have included trade missions to Saudi Arabia and thescrapping of health screening rules, which will save international students NZ$17 million in costs.

UNIVERSITIES UK URGES RETHINK OF CHANGES TO VISA SYSTEMMay 20, 2012 by The Guardian

Universities stand to lose billions of pounds unless the UK

coalition government urgently abandons new rules for overseas

students, campuses across the UK have warned, writes Jessica

Shepherd for the Guardian.

Universities UK, which represents 134 higher education

institutions, is writing to the prime minister urging him to

rethink recent changes to the student visa system. The changes

– aimed at meeting the Conservatives’ election pledge to cut

migration by ‘tens of thousands’ by 2015 – place a limit on

the number of years non-European Union students can spend

studying and restrict the number of hours of paid work they can

do during and after their degrees.

In addition, they are no longer allowed to bring their spouses or

children with them unless they are enrolled on a postgraduate

course that lasts more than a year. These changes are likely to

deter overseas students from coming to Britain, Professor Eric

Thomas, the president of Universities UK, warned. The more

than 405,000 international students currently on UK campuses

enrich the cultural mix of the country and contribute billions to

the UK economy each year, he said.

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tourism. Using Walt Disney World in Florida as a backdrop, the President announced an executive order designed to reduce the time it takes for travelers from China and Brazil to get visas to the USA and mentioned that the number of travelers from Brazil is projected to grow by 274% by 2016 when compared to 2010.

Obama specifi cally ordered the State and Homeland Security departments to boost the capacity for issuing visas in China and Brazil by 40% this year and wants an experimental program to waive interviews for low-risk travelers, such as anyone renewing a visa. For Brazil, he went further asking for interview exemptions for younger or older fi rst-time applicants.

The process has already begun with the recent announcement of the opening of a new consular offi ce in Salvador. This is the second consular offi ce in the Northeast and brings the total number of Consulates in Brazil to fi ve – other offi ces are in Rio, Sao Paulo, Brasilia and Recife. The Northeast is Brazil’s fastest growing area both economically and for student numbers and the new consulate will further boost numbers to the US.

Middle class now more than 50% of the population

According to a September 2010 research by Foundation Getulio Vargas, one of Brazil’s leading education institutions and policy think-tanks, Brazil’s middle class increased by 29 million to over 94 million between 2003 and 2010 and now accounts for more than half the population. At the same time, the AB classes increased by over 6 million to just under 20 million which means that there are now more middle and upper class Brazilians then the entire populations of France and Britain combined.

One consequence of this new found affl uence is that more and more Brazilians have been choosing the option of study abroad to better educate themselves and to improve

their worth in the increasingly demanding job market.

Brazilians of all classes are more than aware that as an emergent economic superpower and with the two largest sporting events on the planet taking place in the country in the next 4 years, whether you are a stock broker or a waiter, the ability to speak another language and an international qualifi cation are a major advantage.

Both Santuza of STB and Patrick of IE Intercambio commented on this in The PIE interviews last month. Santuza said, “There is a growing trend of segmentation and sophistication of consumers. Clients want more than “just a language course.” She continued that “Brazil’s outbound market was set to prosper in the long-term, as many of the newly wealthy C class were now investing in higher education in Brazil” and pointed to a trend of young professionals aged 26-30 delaying marriage and children to invest in their careers and study abroad. In talking of the growth of the C class, Patrick said that, “We now have 50 million people who can afford to study abroad now that couldn’t two years ago.”

Brazilian Agent survey

According to an August 2011 survey by BMI, Brazilian agents expect a 31% increase in 2012. This means that some 365,791 Brazilians are expected to travel abroad for study – just over 267,000 being sent by Brazil’s 447 agencies.

On average each agency sent 303 students abroad with the seven largest sending over 3,000 students each. The survey

RECORD NUMBER OF BRAZILIANS EXPECTED TO STUDY ABROAD IN 2012> continued from pg 1...

In 2011, Brazilian tourists spent a record 21.2 billion dollars abroad, which was a 28% increase on 2010.

The US pavilion at Salao do Estudante 2012

also revealed the commission charged by Brazilian agencies for a wide range of courses. Language and high school programs paid the highest commission, paying an average of 24% and 20% respectively, while undergraduate and

postgraduate programs paid an average of 15%, although some institutions paid as much as 30%.

The survey also looked at which type of courses agents expected to increase or decline in popularity. As expected, 93% expected to send more students for language study but they also expect increases of over 59% and 56% for postgraduate and undergraduate courses respectively. This confi rms the increased interest from agencies in representing these type of courses.

Record number of students visit study abroad Fair.

If further proof was needed of the demand in studying abroad, over 60,000 students, parents and executives visited the Salao do Estudante fair in March 2012. Salao do Estudante is Brazil’s leading international education fair and takes place twice annually in the eight of Brazil’s most important international student markets. The March 2012 event

was opened by the US Consul General and the Sao Paulo fair alone had over 24,000 visitors. The fair, and the queues of students for nearly a half a mile to enter it, featured on the main evening news of all four major TV channels. Almost every major educational agent in Brazil participated in the event alongside over 200 international institutions from 21 countries.

Expensive education at home

With the increasing strength of the Brazilian Real, an overseas education is now up to 35% cheaper than 5 years ago. At the same time, course prices in Brazil have risen signifi cantly. Language courses at many leading Sao Paulo language schools amount to over 375 dollars for 15 hours of tuition and undergraduate course fees at some institutions can be well in excess of US 24,000 per year.

The swelling middle and upper classes, the increased spending power due to currency appreciation and economic growth, the cache of an overseas qualifi cation, the new “Science without Frontiers” scholarship program and the cost of education at home are all conspiring to produce a perfect storm of push factors sending Brazilians abroad to study. Once just a market that was visited to diversify foreign classrooms, Brazil is set to be one of the main source of international students for many years to come and offers international education institutions a great opportunity to recruit students and build links and exchange programs with Brazilian institutions.

Santuza Bicalho, CEO of STBPatrick Guimaraes, President of IE Intercambio

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EDUCATION CALENDAR 2012/13

SALAO DO ESTUDANTE - BRAZILThe largest and most important student recruitment fair in Latin America Sep. 11: Belo Horizonte Sep. 13: Brasilia Sep. 15 & 16: Sao Paulo Sep. 18: Curitiba

EXPO-ESTUDIANTE - PERU, COLOMBIA & VENEZUELA Leading student recruitment fairs in Colombia, Venezuela and Peru. Venezuela fairs in association with AVAA. Sep. 27: Lima Sep. 29: Caracas Oct. 1: Maracaibo

GLOBAL EDUCATION AGENTSWORKSHOP - TURKEYThe opportunity to build relationships with over 120 global agents in association with A2 fairs Oct. 16/17: Istanbul

THE BRAZIL HIGHER EDUCATION WORKSHOPMeet directors and senior staff of the international offi ces of around 60 Brazilians Universities Oct. 25/26: Sao Paulo

THE BRAZIL HIGHER EDUCATION FAIRThe leading Undergrad, Postgraduate & MBA fairs in Brazil. Oct. 27/28: Sao Paulo Oct. 30: Rio de Janeiro

EUROPOSGRADOS - COLOMBIAExclusively for European Postgraduate and Higher Education Institutions Nov. 16/17: Bogota Nov. 19: Cali

BMI AGENTS WORKSHOP - BRAZILMeet over 100 pre-screened student recruitment agents from all across Brazil March 7/8: Sao Paulo

SALAO DO ESTUDANTE - BRAZILThe Largest and most important student recruitment fair in Latin America March 10-28: 8 Cities across Brazil

EXPO-ESTUDIANTE - VENEZUELALeading student recruitment fair in Venezuela in association with AVAA March: Caracas

BMI AGENTS WORKSHOP - CANADAMeet global education and language travel agents - for Canadian institutions only May: Vancouver/Whistler

EXPO-ESTUDIANTE - COLOMBIA AND ECUADORLeading student recruitment fairs in Colombia and Ecuador (inassociation with Senescyt) and Colombia. May: Quito, Guayaquil, Bogota and Cali

NEW FOR 2013

BMI AGENTS WORKSHOP - USAThe opportunity to build relationships with global student agents - for USA institutions only May: San Francisco

BMI AGENTS WORKSHOP - ASIAMeet 80 agents from China and South East Asia - for ASIAinstitutions only Fall 2013: Hong Kong

ASIAN INVASIONAs job markets around the world stagnate, students and young professionals are increasingly looking for study opportunities in Asia to improve their employability.

Compared to English-speaking countries Korea is not only more affordable in terms of tuition and living expenses, but also offers numerous scholarship programs to international students. More recently the Korean government has offered fi nancial support to international students to cover their tuition and board as well as employment assistance.

Latin America is an area of particular interest to South Korean institutions as recent statistics show that numbers of Latin students studying in Korea have more than doubled since 2008. South Korean Universities are now looking to build on the momentum. Kyung Hee University is one of several Korean Universities that have been active in the region and Gon Khang, dean of the university’s offi ce of international affairs told The Korea Herald he had been approached by several other top Korean Universities for advice on how to attract more international students.

“It seems to me that globalisation is to savour different cultures,” Khang told the paper. “We need to meet with and talk to people from different cultures to do that. That is why we would like to attract students not only from Latin America but from all over the world.”

Attending education fairs in the countries you want to target is a tried and tested method of recruiting students. The market leading education fairs in Brazil, Salão do Estudante, recently played host to national delegations from South Korea and Japan, including the University of Tokyo (ranked 30th best university in the world by Times Higher Education) and Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (ranked 94th by THE).

In Chile several Asian Universities are partners of BECAS Chile, the organisation charged with distributing government funded post-graduate scholarships, and many more are registering to attend events where they can meet with BECAS representatives as well as Chilean students who want to study abroad.

In recent years it is not only scholarship organisations but also education travel agencies in Latin America that have been adding Asian institutions to their books, particularly those in China, Korea and Japan, but also growing interest in Asian hubs such as Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan. Latin students like that they can enjoy the “best of both worlds” by receiving a qualifi cation from established universities in traditional English speaking markets as well as gaining contacts and experience in an Asian culture.

Latin American students

studying in Korea have more

than doubled since 2008

Sep. 20: RecifeSep. 23: SalvadorSep. 24: Rio de Janeiro (Copacabana)Sep. 25: Rio de Janeiro (Barra)

Oct. 4: CaliOct. 6 & 7: BogotaOct. 9: Medellin

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Transnational education is booming and the forms in which it is delivered are proliferating all the time. Ever increasing numbers of UK universities are setting up franchising arrangements, 2+1 models, or even full-blown overseas campuses.

The 350-acre campus at Educity Iskandar will be shared by no fewer than eight international universities, including three from the UK. Newcastle, Southampton

and Reading universities will take their place alongside the Netherlands Maritime Institute of Technology and the Singaporean private university Raffl es. Australia’s Monash and a Californian cinematic art school associated with Pinewood Studios are in talks with Iskandar’s management, leaving just one spot left for another, as yet unknown, international institution.

Students from all of the universities will live together in one giant international student village and will share sports and leisure facilities far beyond those

any single university could afford, including a 14,000-seater stadium and an Olympic-length swimming pool.

In the 1990s Malaysia singled out higher education as one of its strategic investments. Historically Malaysia has sent its students abroad for their education, now it is preparing to reverse that position, it wants to become the hub of its region drawing

thousands students from across south-east Asia to its universities in huge numbers. Attracting foreign universities to set up overseas campuses is part of that plan.

The Iskandar special economic region in Johor lies at the southern-most tip of Malaysia, just 5km from the border with Singapore. For Reg Jordan, CEO and provost of Newcastle’s Medical School in Malaysia, both of these things – the location and the fi nancial incentives associated with the special economic region – were major factors.

Newcastle University got the call in 2004. It was invited to bring medicine and biomedical sciences to the project. Jordan said it represented a “golden opportunity” for Newcastle to develop its internationalisation strategy.

Planting a large operation in the centre of south-east Asia will also help Newcastle maximise the value of its intellectual property. “For the university at large it also gives us a base through which the value added business can be added through the research endeavours back in the UK,” Jordan said.

Jordan also sees the occupants of his south-east Asian outpost as playing “ambassadorial roles” for the north-east of England. “A colleague of mine said that one of the best things that Newcastle University could do for the north east of England is to be globally linked. We have a lot of ambassadorial roles, in a sense.”

Southampton, which will open the doors of its new engineering faculty in Malaysia in October this year, is similarly excited by the location. Professor Mark Spearing, pro vice-chancellor, international, said the location was a “very natural fi t for us” given the number of important engineering companies which operate in the region. “Malaysia is the hub of hi-tech industry … Dyson, Rolls Royce, Lloyds Register and BAE Systems are all interested in working with us and employing our students.”

Of the host country’s motives he said: “Malaysia recognises that it is a small country in a region of giants so it wants to move into higher value added activities, not manufacturing but design and engineering, and it needs a very strong education system to do this.”

There are a myriad of other practical issues to be dealt with – such as getting the balance of staff. The Malaysia government has warned overseas universities against poaching too many academic staff from indigenous universities so the Iskandar project will recruit globally. Robson said “obviously we’re very keen to use Reading’s UK staff to begin with but we will want to switch to local staff on lower wages when possible.”

At the moment, because it was fi rst to open, Newcastle is operating its medicine faculty like a university in miniature, paying for everything – IT, library, student welfare – itself. So all three of the UK universities are looking forward to merging what they can of these services to share costs in the future. Spearing said “one of the huge attractions of EduCity is the opportunity to share resources and spread risk.” This frees the universities up “to concentrate on academic delivery”

INSIDE EDUCITY ISKANDAR: A UNIVERSITY PARTNERSHIP IN MALAYSIA

Frederika Whitehead talks to some of the UK universities who are joining forces to form a shared campus in Malaysia – From The Guardian

Networking Workshop

Networking WorkshopSao Paulo 25-26 October 2012

Student Recruitment FairsSao Paulo 27-28 October 2012Rio de Janeiro 30 October 2012

Supported by:

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While there has been much talk and headlines generated this year by the Brazilian government funded scholarship scheme “Science without Borders”, it is students who are self-fi nancing that are responsible for post-secondary (college, university or post-grad) becoming the fastest growing sector in the Brazilian market for education abroad. The program intends to send 100,000 students abroad by 2015 but is already falling well behind the numbers expected. Until April 2012, less than 3,000 students have travelled abroad under the program – though there is expected to be a signifi cant acceleration in the second half of the year. However, not many educators are aware that Brazilians have been travelling abroad in growing numbers before the program was even announced in March 2011. In fact, the latest open doors fi gures showed that the number studying abroad at the undergraduate level in the US exceeded the postgraduate students.

The majority of scholarships under the program are available for 1 year “sandwich” courses abroad. This means a student will begin their studies at a Brazilian university, leave for 1 year to study the same subject at a foreign university, before returning to their Brazilian University to complete their studies.

Currently, the placement of students in overseas institutions is being handled by national organisations such as IIE, Campus France and DAAD and the institutions have little contact with the student until he is placed. In order to enter the program the student has to be recommended by the institution where he is currently studying – normally via their international offi ce. However, many Brazilian institutions are unhappy that they and the students have no choice over where the student

eventually studies and there are signs that the process may be adjusted to give the student and their university sponsors more input. The program has a record of adapting – most recently by adding funding for language study prior to the commencement of undergraduate and postgraduate study.

For now, 99% of students leaving Brazil are self-fi nancing their studies (usually using family money). There are 2 main ways to attract those students:

Through relationships and partnerships with the international offi ces of Brazilian institutions – who incidentally are also looking to attract overseas students to Brazil.

Or directly at focused study abroad fairs like Salao do Estudante or the Brazil Higher Education Fairs. These events attract between 7,000 and 20,000 students, parents, recent graduates and executives who are planning to study abroad in the near future.

In order for the fi rst option to work the Brazilian university must fi rst fi nd another institution abroad that offers the same courses at the same level. Discussions must take place as to acceptance conditions, which modules a student must complete during each phase and how to monitor and assess a student´s progression through any given course. Formal documents must be composed agreeing on the details of these agreements.

This is an expensive and time consuming process that usually involves representatives from overseas universities travelling around a region meeting with various institutions and trying to fi nd the best fi t. However, there is now an event that allows universities to meet and sign agreements with over 60 prospective Brazilian university partners in just two days.

BRAZILIAN HIGHER EDUCATION WORKSHOP BETWEEN BRAZILIAN AND OVERSEAS UNIVERSITIES

INTERNATIONAL MASTERS APPLICATIONS RISE IN SWEDEN DESPITE HIGH FEESApplicants for international masters programmes in Sweden for 2012-13 are up 24% over last year, at 31,223. But this is signifi cantly lower than before Sweden introduced tuition fees for students from outside the European Economic Area.

In 2010, 132,000 students applied for more than 500 masters programmes.

Swedish universities now have three strategic objectives: to broaden the number and quality of applicants from Europe who do not have to pay tuition fees; to compete globally for tuition fee-eligible students; and to recruit more Swedish students to the programmes.

The Brazil Higher Education Workshop is a networking event, similar in format to “speed dating”, which allows Brazilian universities and other higher education institutions from around the world to schedule meetings with each other during 2 days in Sao Paulo - Brazil. All participating universities are given access to an online scheduling system that allows them to view a profi le of each participating university and then schedule 30 minute meetings with those they feel are a good fi t.

There are 22 appointment slots over the two days as well as informal networking events where representatives can get to know each other better and

have further discussions with prospective partners and others they could not fi t into their individual meeting schedule.

The Brazil Higher Education Workshop will take place on October 25th and 26th in Sao Paulo and is limited to 45 international institutions. The workshop is immediately followed by the Brazil Higher Education Fair in Sao Paulo (October 27th & 28th) and Rio de Janeiro (October 30th). Institutions interested in learning more about this unique event or confi rming participation should contact BMI at info@bmimedia.net

Event that allows universities to meet and sign agreements

with over 60 Brazilian university partners

The Brazil Higher Education Workshop will take place

on October 25th and 26th in Sao Paulo - Brazil

EDUCATION NEWS

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Whether it is Oxford, Cambridge, or any of its universities, Britain takes great pride in its higher education system. It is right to do so. British universities consistently rank among the very best in Europe. As such, they are a popular destination for hundreds of thousands of foreign students, who choose them for the quality of the teaching and the strength of their research environments.

This infl ow of talented youth risks being choked off by the government’s immigration policy. The Home Offi ce aims to reduce the net number of immigrants to less than 100,000 by 2015. Whatever one thinks of the cap – and the Financial Times has been a stern critic of its impact on British business – the government should at the very least exclude students from it.

As argued in this newspaper by Nick Pearce and Jo Johnson, Britain has much to gain from unlimited student immigration. This is clearly good for universities. Not only do foreign students widen the pool of talent. By paying fees that are often higher than those of their British peers, they also help to fund the system.

The dividends for the British economy are even bigger. Those students who opt to return home after university bring back with them memories of their experience in the UK. This can lead to lucrative commercial and diplomatic ties. Those who decide to stay in Britain can

provide businesses with valuable skills. Cutting the number of international students by 50,000 per year would cost the economy an annual £2-3bn.

The government may argue that, by including students in the cap, it has responded to voters’ anxieties about immigration. But polls show that the public is not concerned about the rising numbers of international students.

This is hardly surprising. After all, most foreign students leave the UK shortly after achieving their qualifi cation, posing no threat to British jobseekers.

By excluding students from the cap, the government would also follow what has become international best practice. Australia, Canada and the US – the UK’s main competitors in the market for higher education – all count students as temporary rather than permanent admissions.

At a time of ailing growth, Britain must take full advantage of the most competitive sectors in its economy. University education is one of them. By removing students from the immigration cap, the government would send a powerful signal that the UK has its doors open for business and talent – wherever they come from.

The Politecnico di Milano, one of Italy’s leading technical universities, has announced that from the beginning of the 2014 academic year, all MSc and PhD courses will be taught exclusively in English.

But some of the institution’s professors oppose the switch to English from Italian, and 285 have signed a petition to the rector.

While the university already offers several courses in English, as do other Italian institutions, the move to drop Italian entirely in favour of English is a fi rst among Italy’s public universities. The institution will also be investing 3.2 million (US$4.1 million) to attract faculty including 15 lecturers, 30 to 35 post-doctorates and 120 visiting professors.

The decision is part of the the university’s internationalisation strategy, which has seen a 40% increase in requests for admission by foreign students this year. Foreign nationals comprise around 10% of Milano’s 37,000 students, and the majority (55%) come from non-English speaking countries such as Brazil, Russia, India, China, Vietnam, Turkey and Iran.

This has not mollifi ed the protesting professors, however. In their petition document, An Appeal in Defence of Freedom in Tuition, they claim that the imposition of English in an Italian university is unconstitutional and illegitimate.

According to petition instigator Professor Emilio Matricciani, “the point is not English”.

He said in a radio interview: “The point is that English is being imposed on students as a kind of linguistic dictatorship…and what we might call ‘low-defi nition’ English (the English of conferences and so on) is also being confused with the ‘high-defi nition’ language of teaching.”

But Rector Giovanni Azzone dismissed the professors’ protest, saying it would not affect the decision.

“We are about 1,400 professors with 1,400 different ways of thinking,” he told University World News.

“This decision was agreed on by a wide majority at the governance level [which includes many academics]...It clearly requires an extra effort on the part of lecturers, and some have embraced this challenge, while others have not,” he added.

Azzone said the increase in English teaching offered a double benefi t to students, directly by increasing graduate employment prospects and indirectly by exposing students to different cultures and communicating through an ‘international’ language with people from all over the world.

“We are proud of our Italian roots, which we consider an added value for all foreign students deciding to complete education in our university,” Azzone said. “Nevertheless, as a technical-scientifi c university, we cannot underestimate the international context.”

The institution’s doctoral students have also embraced the change. Roberto Maffei, president of the PhD students’ association said PhD students were overwhelmingly in favour.

“What is the point of publishing research in a language that no-one else can read? We need to communicate not only with native English speakers but also with Turks, Iranians, Chinese…As far as I’m concerned this change can only be positive,” he said.

BRITAIN’S POINTLESS CAP ON TALENT

ENGLISH-ONLY POSTGRADUATE COURSES AT MILAN POLYTECHNIC SPARK PROTEST

May 15 2012, Financial Times

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9

Every day institutions are receiving increasing numbers of invitations to participate in international education fairs around the world. With the declining infl uence of recruitment agents in some key markets, maintaining a market presence means that an education fair is one of the only ways to meet directly with students and their parents. Therefore, given the high cost of exhibiting abroad, institutions are under pressure to choose

not only the right international markets, but also the right exhibition.

Unfortunately everyone has heard stories of fairs organized by new, unexperienced companies for which there has been no publicity or marketing, fairs with few visitors, and/or fairs where visitors are just “leafl et-picking”. Education News suggests that institutions who are considering exhibiting abroad ask the organizers the following questions:

What is your experience?Has the fair taken place before? Is organizing events their main business or just an add-on

service? Ask them how many years the event has taken place before for each specifi c location. Don’t just ask them how many times the event has taken place.

What is your marketing and print advertising budget?

Don’t worry about asking this important question. Remember it’s your money that they will be spending. Ask how much money will be spent on print advertising in major magazines and direct promotion to key executives,

parents, private high schools, universities and language schools in the cities where the fairs take place. This is probably the single most important question as it directly relates to how many students will visit the event. If they are vague or promote the benefi t of internet advertising, remember that more and more people are ignoring unsolicited emails and even opt-in newsletters. Even though some students may be attracted by this method of promotion, it will reach very few parents.

Who are your sponsors and where do you advertise?

Sponsors, especially media

sponsors, can be extremely successful in promoting the event and ensuring that the right quality and quantity of students attend. You should ask who is sponsoring the event, and specifi cally, if the sponsors are a major newspaper or magazine - ask how each medium will support the event in terms of publicity. Are the sponsors leaders in their fi eld? Are they just supporting the event by email and internet promotion or is there other substantial media support?

Which organisations support the event?

Most international organisations, consulates and advising bodies support specifi c events and are very selective in who they do support. Many fair organisers therefore put lots of logos from organisations as supporting their fairs in order to gain credibility, yet those organisations may not even be aware of this. If you are planning to attend an event because you see an organization such as the US Consulate, Education USA, Fulbright, Campus France, British Council etc,pporti t ask the organizer for a copy of the letter of support or other documentation. If they cannot provide it, be wary.

What other schools/programs are exhibiting?

If you are an intensive English program and everyone is offering high school courses, there is a strong chance that you might not be at the right event. Ask the organizer for a detailed list of exhibitors at the last event

and look to see which and how many of your competitors and colleagues participate.

Do local education agents participate?

One of the main ways for local education agents to generate new leads and meet parents is by attending education fairs. Ask how many agents participate in each city you are considering participating in. If you already work with agents in a country or city in which you are thinking of participating, ask them which fair is the best or fi nd out in which fair they participate.

Where is the venue?

Is the venue the best one for the event? If the hotel or convention centre is diffi cult to reach or there are no transportation links to it, there may be problems with visitor numbers. The price of one fair may be higher as it’s in a better or more affl uent area, but it is worth paying a few hundred dollars more to avoid a poor turnout or to actually meet students who can afford your courses.

How was the fair last year?

Was it well attended? How was the quality of the visitors? Also make sure that you get a list of previous exhibitors from the organizer and then contact as many people as you know to fi nd out what they think. They may have a very different opinion from the one expressed by the organizer. However, be aware that sometimes a competitor may give you a negative answer to

CHOOSING THE RIGHT INTERNATIONAL STUDENT RECRUITMENT FAIR

...continued on pg 10 >

EDUCATION NEWS

10

deliberately dissuade you from a particular event that works for them.

Ask Alumni & Colleagues?Nothing beats local knowledge and word of mouth advertising. Contact ex-students and friends in your destination country and give them the exact names of the fairs (as they often sound similar) or location (sometimes fairs are known by their location) of the fairs you are considering. Provide as much detail of the promotional plans of the fair, the specifi c media and sponsors of the event and ask them which fair they feel is the best. Sometimes you will get a much better picture from them than from agents, who may direct you to a fair they organize themselves or a fair organized by an agent association they belong to.

How many visitors are you expecting and why?This will give you a good idea of what materials to bring and will also indicate the local knowledge of the organizer. Ensure that the organizer can give you good reasons for traveling to a country to recruit – make sure they know the market.

Do they attract the right audience?There are now hundreds of different education fairs to choose from. Some are for MBAs, some for undergraduate enrolments and some just

for domestic institutions that have added an area or aisle for international institutions. Choose a fair that is specifi cally for students wishing to study abroad and see how many of those students or what percentage of them are interested in your course and country.

Stands or Tables?

Most of the largest and best international education fairs provide fully fi tted stands which include carpet, lighting, shelves, tables and chairs. However, there are also many fairs which use the workshop-style ‘table and chair’ format. These events can also be very good but ensure that they tell you are not paying the same price for a workshop-style event as one where you have a stand.

Table & chair events, or events promoted only by internet advertising are generally much cheaper, so make sure the organizers are passing on the savings that they are making.

Are they selling leads or names of students who attend their fairs?

Some less scrupulous fair organisers will charge you thousands of dollars to meet

students at their events while at the same time sell the contact details of each visitor to other institutions that are not at the fair. This means that when you exhibit at the fair, you are not just competing

with the institutions present but also with hundreds of others around the world.

The Final Decision – Choose the right fair not the add-ons!

Many of the newer or less reputable events companies now offer huge promotional discounts in order to entice you to try the product. If a company is offering 30 or 40% discounts you have to ask yourself why? Can they really afford to do a proper

marketing campaign for the fair? If something seems too good to be true it usually is.

Recently many events are offering additional services such as free language courses or sending out mass emails to sway your decisions. Remember that when it comes to deciding the fair in which you will participate, you should base your decision on which is the best fair and not on these ‘add-on’ gimmicks. At the end of the day your attendance at an educational fair does not only hinge on the cost of the fair as this may only be a small proportion of the total cost of a trip (which includes the shipping of materials, air-ticket, hotels and meals). So, are the few hundred dollars you may save really justifi cation for going to an event of lesser quality? The extra students you recruit at the right event will more than pay for a 500 dollar saving!

Choosing the right international student recruitment fair> continued from pg 9...

Less scrupulous fair

organisers charge you

thousands of dollars to meet

students at their events then

sell the contacts of each

visitor to other institutions

not at the fair.

Seminar at Salao do Estudante, Brazil

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11

WORLD’S TOP 100 UNIVERSITIES 2012: THEIR REPUTATIONS RANKED BY TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION

The top 100 list of world universities shows Harvard at number one again, UK’s leading universities have dropped several places since last year and China’s universities have improved. Find out what else this list reveals

Harvard University is number one in the top 100 list of most reputable Universities as it did last year, according to data put together by The Times Higher Education and Thomson Reuters.

The country with the most reputable universities in the world is the US according to the global reputation ranking out today.

But what’s interesting are the subtle changes from last year’s list.

These trends have not yet changed the overall results of the countries producing the most reputable universities. Taking the top 50 universities from the list we can see that America still has the largest number of higher quality universities, followed by the UK.

According to the Times Higher Education website the list is made by 17,554 leading academics from 149 countries who have rated campuses across the world according to how good they thought their research and teaching were.

With university tuition fees rocketing and more applicants fi ghting for places, university reputation is set to be an even

bigger focus for prospective students.

2012

reputation

rank

2011

reputation

rank

University Country

1 1 Harvard University U.S.A

2 2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology U.S.A

3 3 University of Cambridge U.K

4 5 Stanford University U.S.A

5 4 University of California, Berkeley U.S.A

6 6 University of Oxford U.K

7 7 Princeton University U.S.A

8 8 University of Tokyo Japan

9 12 University of California, Los Angeles U.S.A

10 9 Yale University U.S.A

11 10 California Institute of Technology U.S.A

12 13 University of Michigan U.S.A

13 11 Imperial College London U.K

14 15 University of Chicago U.S.A

15 23 Columbia University U.S.A

16 16 Cornell University U.S.A

16 17 University of Toronto Canada

18 14 Johns Hopkins University U.S.A

19 22 University of Pennsylvania U.S.A

20 18 Kyoto University Japan

21 19 University College London U.S.A

22 24 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich Switzerland

23 21 University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign U.S.A

23 27 National University of Singapore Singapore

25 31 University of British Columbia Canada

2012

reputation

rank

2011

reputation

rank

University Country

25 29 McGill University Canada

27 25 University of Wisconsin-Madison U.S.A

28 26 University of Washington U.S.A

29 37 London School of Economics and Political Science U.K

30 35 Tsinghua University China

31 34 University of California, San Francisco U.S.A

32 31 University of Texas at Austin U.S.A

33 36 Duke University U.S.A

34 51-60 New York University U.S.A

35 40 Northwestern University U.S.A

36 30 University of California, San Diego U.S.A

37 28 Carnegie Mellon University U.S.A

38 43 Peking University China

39 42 The University of Hong Kong H.K

39 19 University of Massachusetts U.S.A

41 39 Georgia Institute of Technology U.S.A

42 48 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Germany

43 45 University of Melbourne Australia

44 51-60 Australian National University Australia

44 38 University of California, Davis U.S.A

46 41 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill U.S.A

47 43 University of Minnesota U.S.A

47 47 Purdue University U.S.A

49 45 University of Edinburgh U.K

50 51-60 The University of Sydney Australia

EDUCATION NEWS

12

LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES PUSH MORE STUDENTS TO STUDY ABROADThe Brazilian government announced it plans to give 75,000 scholarships for local students to study abroad by 2014. By Andrew Downie, São Paulo, Brazil - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Cristian Castro, who is earning a Ph.D. in history with a scholarship from the Chilean government, says the award has become more democratic: “People who never imagined leaving the country can now do so.” He and Daniela Torres-Toretti, his wife, both study at the U. of California at Davis.

The Brazilian government announced this year that it plans to give 75,000 scholarships for local students to study abroad by 2014.

But when offi cials tell students how and where they might apply, some can’t quite get their heads around it.

“I can feel that they are thinking, This can’t be for me, it has to be for someone else, maybe for those with Ph.D.’s or more advanced degrees,” said Thais Pires, head of Alumni Advising-Education USA. “They want to know more, but lots of them can’t believe it.”

The disbelief is perhaps understandable given the unprecedented scope of the program, Science Without Borders. But the vast new effort is indicative of a broad trend up and down the region.

More Latin American students are going abroad, largely to the United States, to study (although their numbers still lag way behind students from Asia), and governments across the continent are using some of their newfound wealth to increase the numbers further through generous scholarship programs.

In addition to Brazil, nations such as Chile and El Salvador have offered or are planning to offer new incentives to get their students into foreign programs.

“They are all trying to increase dramatically the number of students they send abroad,” said Samir Zaveri, international operations director for BMI, a company that organizes education fairs in Latin America. “The idea is that they come back with more skills and help the economy and help with its growth, especially in areas where there are shortages.”

That is especially clear in Brazil, the biggest country in South America and the world’s sixth largest economy. Brazil now is growing fast, but it struggles to fi nd the researchers, engineers, and highly skilled workers to

maintain that growth.

The 75,000 scholarships offered by the government of President Dilma Rousseff, as well as an additional 25,000 slated to come from the private sector, are exclusive to fi elds of national interest such

as science, technology, and engineering.

They will come from the federal Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education (Capes) and the National Council for Scientifi c and Technological Development (CNPq).

“Capes will manage 40,000 scholarships, and CNPq will manage 35,000 scholarships,” said Denise Neddermeyer, director of international affairs for Capes. The other 25,000 scholarships “will cover areas with an important technological impact, such as engineering, hard science, mathematics, energy, sustainable development, environment, biotechnology, and health.”

That focus is shared by governments across the region, large and small. El Salvador, for example, created a vice ministry of science and technology in 2009.

The Central American nation provides 35 scholarships a year for students to study abroad, but it is planning to add another 150 to that number

over the next three years, said José Marroquin, the engineer in charge of Becas Fantel, the government’s main scholarship program. The additional places are for students pursuing subjects important to the country, such as environment and health.

Ecuador this month announced its most ambitious scholarship program yet, with the aim of sending more than 1,000 students abroad, while Colombia will send more people overseas in 2011 than in the 18 previous years put together.

And Chile plans to offer 30,000 scholarships by 2018 through a program called Becas Chile. The $6-billion scheme was started by former President Michelle Bachelet in 2008 and replaced the smaller President of the Republic scholarships.

Like in many other national scholarship programs, those who win Becas Chile scholarships sign a contract agreeing to return home after completing their studies and work for “the good of the country.” Its sheer size has proved a particular boon to less-well-off students.

“One new student who just came here is from the south of Chile, and fi ve or six years ago that would have been impossible,” said Cristian Castro, a Chilean student earning a doctorate in history at the University of California at Davis. “The best thing that Michelle Bachelet did was to democratize it. People who never imagined leaving the country can now do so.”

Foreign-Currency Reserves

One key factor in making this all possible is that Latin American governments have huge reserves of foreign currency thanks to the worldwide thirst for

Brazilians getting doctorates abroad must go through a lengthy process to validate their

qualifi cation

Europosgrados 2012

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13

commodities like copper, iron ore, soy beans, and sugar.

Grants given to Latin American students on Fulbright programs tripled to $21-million in 2010, from $7.5-million in 2000, said Jenny Verdaguer, branch chief for Fulbright Western Hemisphere programs.

The leading contributors today are Chile and Brazil, two of the fastest growing countries in the hemisphere. They replace Mexico and Argentina, two nations that underwent harsh economic times during the last decade.

Not coincidentally, new programs are being discussed with Panama, Paraguay, and Peru, economies that grew 7.5 percent, 15.3 percent, and 8.8 percent respectively in 2010.

“I think that the willingness of governments to send students abroad is predicated on their economic resources, and if they have that they can dream large,” Ms. Verdaguer said in a telephone interview from Washington.

The increased investment in Fulbright programs “is very much a function of improved economic conditions in the region,” she added.

While continued economic growth would thus appear to be a prerequisite for longer-term continuance of the scholarships schemes, there are other obstacles, not least of which is the commitment of Latin governments to actually carry out such grandiose plans.

Other issues include how readily their foreign degrees will be accepted at home—Brazilians getting doctorates abroad must go through a lengthy process to validate their qualifi cation—as well as ensuring that students come back and share their knowledge, as stipulated in their contracts.

“It is hard to oblige people to pay it back if they don’t want to,” said Ian Whitman, author of an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development report on the Becas Chile program. “They want them to come home but come home to what? Research institutes without a test tube or a microscope? In the case of

Chile, we recommended that they use some of their money to improve the infrastructure of their research sector.”

Another issue is foreign-language profi ciency. More than half of those winning the fi rst scholarships from the Becas Chile program needed to take language lessons before going abroad. And Ms. Neddermeyer acknowledged that Brazil must invest in tuition because not enough students are fl uent in languages other than Portuguese.

“It is clear this could be a diffi culty in longer term,” she said. “I think we have a group ready right now, but when we extend ourselves, I think we will need to have extensive courses. That can also be negotiated with the foreign universities. Some will offer that as part of their deal.”

For now, the main challenge is spreading the word and ramping up interest with universities and students. It’s not hard once that initial skepticism wears off, said Ms. Pires. Especially with such unprecedented numbers at hand.

By Andrew Downie. Copyright 2011 The Chronicle of Higher Education. Reprinted with permission.

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS IMPROVE THEIR CHANCES OF FINDING WORK

A new report says demand by employers for international graduates last year increased close to levels not seen since the effects of the global fi nancial crisis began to be felt in 2008.

The report by Graduate Careers Australia (GCA) was based on a survey of more than 500 graduate employers and reveals that the proportion of those who recruited international

graduates almost doubled between 2005 and 2008 to a peak of 35%.

He will not be alone in that hope: universities across Australia have been hard hit fi nancially by the rapid and, in some cases, disastrous downturn in foreign student enrolments over the past two years, especially from the two biggest source countries of China and India.

EDUCATION NEWS

14

BRAZIL’S “SCIENCE WITHOUT BORDERS” SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM EXPLAINED

Shortly after the offi cial visit of US President Barack Obama to Brazil in March 2011, Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff announced a scholarship program to send 75,000 Brazilian students abroad by 2014. The Brazilian program known as “Science without Borders”, which will cost US$ 2.2 billion, allows students to study abroad for undergraduate and postgraduate study. In addition to the 75,000 government funded scholarships a further 25,000 will be funded by the private sector, bringing the total number to 100,000.

Other Latin American countries have had such programs in place for many years: Colombia has had various programs for the last 10 years; Ecuador recently announce a new program to send more students abroad than Colombia; and Chile has the largest program with a $6 Billion program (Becas Chile) due to run until 2018. However, the Brazilian program, which was launched with great fanfare last year, has seen foreign governments and educational institutions racing to get the highest possible share of the money.

The Program is coordinated by two governmental organisations – the National Council for Scientifi c and Technological Development (CNPq) and Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education (CAPES) – and focuses mainly on health and life sciences and on the STEM fi elds (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). With one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, Brazil sees support for these areas as critical to sustaining its immediate and future development

According to CNPQ’s Emerson Willer, about 35,000 of the 75,000 participants awarded scholarships will be placed in the US, 10,000 in the UK, 10,000 in Germany and 5000 in France

with the remaining 15,000 going to institutes in Asia and other countries in the Americas

and Europe. The United States welcomed the fi rst students to go abroad from the program in January 2012 when 650 Brazilians began study in over

100 U.S. universities in 42 states.

Willer further clarifi ed that

benefi ciaries of the scheme must

study engineering, pure sciences

(such as chemistry, physics and

mathematics) or biosciences

and health research. Chemistry

related fi elds are being targeted

as strategically important and

include nanotechnology, new

materials, pharmaceuticals,

traditional energy generation

and renewable energies. Like

most of the other scholarship

programs in Latin America,

Brazil requires the students to

return to Brazil for the same

period of time that they stayed

abroad.

The scholarship program is

constantly adapting to ensure

that the best students are able

to go and as quickly as possible.

One major problem identifi ed

by many observers is there

may not be enough qualifi ed

candidates who speak English

or the language of their intended

country. The program has

therefore now included language

study for those that need it.

No doubt there will be other

obstacles as well but it is obvious

that the government and the

agencies involved are keen to

solve any issues and get the

students abroad and back as

soon as possible.

The scholarship program is constantly adapting to ensure the best students are able

to travel as quickly as possible

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15

NEW AGENT WORKSHOPS IN USA & CHINA AND VIP PROGRAM FOR AGENCIES

On May 20th, BMI announced the launch of two new agent workshops for 2013 and a new VIP program for the best educational agencies in the world. The new workshops will be held in San Francisco and Hong Kong and follow the huge success of the Global Education Agents Workshop held in Turkey (organised jointly with A2) in October 2011, as well as the long established workshops in Brazil and Canada.

With a maximum of fi fty places for participating international institutions, the BMI agent workshops are extremely popular due to the boutique nature of the event as they allow numerous networking opportunities in addition to the one-to-one meeting schedule. They are also very popular with the educational agencies, even though agencies have to go through a strenuous approval process which includes checking references with institutions they already represent as well as having a proven track record of growth in sending students abroad. Agents particularly like the BMI workshop format as they are given an extra nights accommodation which allows more time to network with the participating international

institutions and to explore the host city.

The 2012 BMI Agent Workshop – Canada took place in the Olympic city of Whistler. Quality agents from key markets worldwide were fl own in by one of the event´s sponsors, Air Canada, to meet with boarding schools, language schools, public school districts, colleges and universities from across Canada.

Visiting agents were fi rst treated to a tour of Vancouver where they got to spend some time downtown, visit tourist attractions such as Granville Island and have lunch overlooking the spectacular English Bay. There were also opportunities to visit the campuses of some of the schools participating in the workshop. The wide diversity of courses that Canada has to offer were on show to the agents, including English with ski lessons offered by some Whistler based language schools, through to degree and diploma programmes in everything from Art to Aerospace Engineering offered by the universities and colleges and even training in Gastronomy and Hospitality Management offered by the world renowned Le Cordon Bleu.

DENMARK WANTS STUDENTS TO STUDY ABROADOrten Østergaard, Denmark’s minister for higher education, wants to see all Danish students taking a study period abroad, gathering knowledge and experience outside the country that will enable Denmark to succeed in global competition.

“We want to intensify the work securing administrative resources for approvals regarding tuition fees and recognition of study periods abroad,” he said. “We want to make sure that the competencies acquired abroad are recognised with full credit when they come home.”

He said in the medium term,

rules and regulations would be simplifi ed.

In an interview with the Danish newspaper Politiken, the minister said he would discuss with universities how to make it less complicated and more attractive for students to study abroad as part of their course.

“Specifi cally designed courses should be made for directing students, for instance, to the BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China,” the minister told Politiken. “We need students to go to countries where economic growth will take place in the future.”

“Well organised. I like the fact that it was a small workshop so there was more opportunity to get to know the agents and exhibitors”, says Anne Harris, Operations Manager, International Education at College of New Caledonia, one of the participating colleges from Canada.

Like the Global Education Agents Workshop in Istanbul last year and the BMI Agents Workshop – Brazil in March 2012, the Whistler workshop was rated good or excellent by 100% of all participating agents and education institutions. The post-event evaluations from each of these workshops, as well as research carried out by BMI, also showed that agents were interested in meeting more US education providers and that international institutions are very interested to meet high quality agents from China and South-East Asia.

In announcing the new workshops, Sangin Zaveri, BMI’s Business Development Director, simultaneously announced the launch of a program where the best agencies from each region will have VIP treatment at the BMI workshops. Benefi ts for the selected agency include

upgraded accommodation, meals and fl ights. Sangin clarifi ed how the program would work.

“Through our regional offi ces and worldwide partners we know who the best agents in each region are, and it´s not just the long-established big-name agencies, although of course these often are prime candidates for our VIP status. But also a mid-size agency opening several offi ces in smaller cities will get a big jump in student numbers and will need new partner institutions to send these students to. Or a senior manager leaving an established agency and setting up on their own will also grow extremely quickly. We can identify these high-value agents and we want them to know that when they come to our workshops they will have a minimum or no cost and that they will be treated like VIPs. It is important for the agencies and particularly important for the participating institutions to know we will have the best agencies and have gone the extra mile to ensure they are there.”

FIRST GLOBAL EDUCATION AGENT WORKSHOP IN TURKEY (GEAW) HERALDED A GREAT SUCCESS

The fi rst GEAW agent workshop held in October 2011 welcomed more than 40 educators from all over the world and 90 agents, predominantly from Turkey, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, Russia and Asia. In total 130 international education professionals took part and two main areas of interest in the region were well covered, higher education and language study as well as participants from high schools and vocational colleges.

The workshop also provided extensive opportunity for networking – a vital component of doing business in the Middle East – with two luncheons and a major evening reception and dinner. “It’s been a very friendly, effective and inspiring workshop both professionally and from the aspect of networking and socialising. I have gained new experiences and valuable contacts for future effi cient professional partnerships. The manageable time compare favourably to some huge workshops” said Eva Brodsky, OTP Travel, a Hungarian agency.

GEAW is a joint venture between BMI and a2 fairs of Turkey.

EDUCATION NEWS

16

The articles published in this Education News have been written/produced with information supplied by the following organizations, sources and websites:

Australia Education International (AEI)AVAABecas ChileBritish Trade InternationalCampusFranceCaracol RadioChina DailyCIA’s World FactbookColfuturoCPS/FGV from microdata of PNAD/IBGEDAADDFAIT CanadaEconomist Intelligence UnitEducation USAEl MercurioEuropean students’ unionEuroposgradosExpo-EstudianteFinancial TimesFolha de Sao PauloFotlia.comICETEXInstitute of International Education (IIE)Instituto Ecuatoriano de Crédito Educativo y BecasIstockphoto.comLA República Newspaper Ministerio de Educación Nacional Colombia’s National Education MinistryNMC Research ReportNUFFICO GloboOECDRevista DineroSalão do EstudanteThe British CouncilThe Chronicle of Higher EducationThe EconomistThe GuardianThe Malta Independent OnlineThe Media LineThe PIE NewsThe World BankUCASUNESCOUniversity World NewsWikipedia

IN BRIEF...

NON-EU STUDENTS IN UK UNIVERSITIES RISES AS DOMESTIC AND EU NUMBERS FALLApplication fi gures released in February 2012 for the forthcoming academic year, the fi rst in which higher tuition rates in much of Britain will be in effect, show a decline of 8.7 percent for applicants from Britain, with the biggest drop in England, where fees will nearly triple this autumn. The number

of applications from EU countries, whose students pay the same rate as domestic British students, decreased by 11.2 percent, but the number of applications from prospective students from outside the EU, who pay much higher rates, rose by 13.7 percent.

SOUTH KOREA: GLOBAL CAMPUS FOR FOREIGN UNIVERSITIES

ABOUT BMI

BMI, which celebrated 25 years in 2011, organizes the leading international education fairs in Latin America and have been involved in organizing events in Asia, Europe, North America and Australia.

In addition, BMI organize specialized agent workshops in Asia, Brazil, Canada and China, and is joint organizer of GEAW - The Global Education Agent Workshop which takes place every October in Istanbul.

In 2011, 170,000 visitors, 675 international exhibitors and over 400 educational agencies participated in a BMI event.

South Korea is encouraging foreign universities to set up campuses at the Songdo Global University Campus, or SGUC.

The scheme is located in a free trade area, the Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ). Helena Jung, its project manager, explained the campus would “not actually be an independent university”, rather “a university complex where foreign universities are located together”, built by the Incheon authorities rather than the universities themselves.

Each university will grant its own degrees to students and be responsible for its own academic administration. But a special independent administration would manage campus facilities.

The IFEZ authorities want to attract 10 foreign university branches, each providing “their most competent academic programmes”. As a result, “the campus will be able to act as a comprehensive university as a whole,” said Jung.

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Promotion of expertise through public-private partnership inspired by British Council model.

The US state department, already established as a major provider of English language teaching support through its international public diplomacy strategy, is seeking to promote more aggressively US ELT

skills and expertise to meet the growing global demand for language learning.

The state department’s partner for what is being seen as a shift in strategy will be the main US ELT professional association Tesol, which has 9,000 members in the US and a further 3,000 abroad.

US LAUNCHES GLOBAL PUSH TO SHARE ELT SKILLS