WHAT MOTIVATES INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS?

Overseas students head to Britain for quality, to the United States for career improvement and to Germany for low tuition, according to a new study. The British Council’s Student Decision Making Survey includes information gathered from around 115,000 students, from 200 countries, who hope to study abroad. The poll has been conducted over the past three and a half years.

The introduction to the report notes that the market for overseas students is becoming "more sophisticated," with domestic higher education investment in many countries making overseas study less attractive, and courses taught in English increasingly being offered in non-English-speaking countries.

The survey found that when choosing a country, just over half of students put quality of education in their top three priorities. Just over a quarter (26.3 per cent) see the reputation of a country’s universities as a key factor. Of students naming Britain as their ideal destination, 59 percent said they considered quality of education the top priority – the highest rating of any destination country on that criterion.

Prospective students aiming to study in the U.S. were most likely to focus on enhancing their career prospects (38 percent). Those with their eyes on Australia or Canada were more inclined than others to see the opportunity to work while studying as a key consideration (24 percent), while those seeking a place in Germany were most likely to mention low tuition fees as a priority (25 percent).

But overall the "cost of studying overseas does not feature strongly when students are choosing a study destination," according to the survey, with only one in 10 citing low tuition as one of the three most important factors.The survey found that when asked to identify three factors that most influenced their initial decision to study abroad – before choice of destination – higher quality is cited by 54.2 percent, followed by career improvement (53.8 percent) and the chance to live overseas (51.5 per cent).

The survey report notes changes in the market. "Having traditionally drawn students who are comfortable with the English language, the UK is now competing with non-English speaking countries offering tuition in English," it says. "In addition, some of the key countries for international students are investing heavily in their domestic higher education systems, making study abroad less attractive at undergraduate level."

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, five countries attract a combined 50 percent of all students studying outside their home nations: the United States (19 percent), Britain (10 percent), Germany (7 percent), France (7 percent) and Australia (7 percent). But the market shares of most of these countries have dropped over the past eight years.

The OECD’s recent Education at a Glance 2010 report found that the US share of the overseas student market fell from 26 to 19 percent over an eight-year period, and Britain's share dropped by two percentage points. The shares of Australia, Korea and New Zealand rose by one percentage point and Russia’s by two percentage points.The OECD also noted that "an increasing number of institutions in non-English-speaking countries now offer courses in English to overcome their linguistic disadvantage in terms of attracting foreign students," a trend identified with the Nordic countries in particular.

Cambridge English test recognized by UK and Australia:

The Cambridge University's Certificate of Advanced English is now recognized by the UK Border Agency (UKBA) and Australia's Department.

Cambridge said that the decision by UK immigration and Australia immigration was made in a bid to attract more students to higher education establishments both in Australia and the UK. Both countries have recently come under fire for bringing in stricter student immigration rules.

The UK recently brought in more restrictions on foreign students working in the UK. The UK also intends to axe the popular Tier 1 Post Study Work visa scheme. Australia had made English language requirements somewhat tougher for foreign students; More recently, following concerns from the country's education sector, Australia immigration eased some of the requirements for those applying for student visas. UKBA now recognizes Cambridge's Key English Test, Preliminary English Test, Business English Certificate, Certificated Version of Business Language Testing Service, Certificate of Advanced English, Certificate of Proficiency in English, International Legal English Certificate and International Certificate of Financial English as suitable tests to confirm English language ability.

In the past, the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) was the main test used for assessing English language ability. However, it is not always easy for students to find places on IELTS courses due to the high demand for these tests.

CANADA: Colleges see surge in Indian applicants

Canadian colleges opened their doors last week to accommodate a huge surge of new students coming from the Indian subcontinent. The Association of Canadian Community Colleges, or ACCC, is projecting about 12,000 Indian students.

At one institution, Centennial College in Toronto, staff members have been greeting students at a welcome booth at Pearson International Airport for the past two weeks.

The popularity of Canada as a higher education destination for Indians has been growing over the past several years. Statistics from the Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) office in India recorded a 511% increase in the number of students coming to study between 2007 and 2010 - from 1,503 students in 2007 to 9,176 in 2010.

Established in April 2009 with 20 participating member colleges, it has since grown to encompass 43 colleges in six provinces across Canada.

Indian students are attracted to Canada for its business and engineering programmes. One-third of the students are high school graduates, while the rest are three-year university graduates who hope that postgraduate diplomas will improve their employment chances.

Many are also interested in taking advantage of the immigration pathway Canada offers international students who wish to become permanent residents.

Cambridge still top in QS university ranking

The University of Cambridge has retained the leading place in the 2011 QS World University Rankings after displacing Harvard University in 2010. But Oxford University, which was fifth last year, dropped a place as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology continued its move up the rankings to third place. MIT was in ninth place in 2009, and fifth last year.

Harvard's failure to recapture first place from Cambridge was despite its domination of the series of subject tables published by QS over the past few months. Observers attributed this to the continuing impact of the decline in staffing levels that cost it the top place in 2010.

Ben Sowter, QS head of research, said: "The gap between Cambridge and Harvard is very small, but Cambridge's superior student-faculty ratio helped tip the balance.

"Individual attention is one of the key attractions of the Oxbridge tutorial system."

Writing for QS, John O'Leary, former education editor of The Times, pointed out that both the 33,000-plus academics from 141 countries and the 16,785 employers responding to the surveys, had placed Harvard top.

"But Cambridge's superiority on other indicators gave it the overall lead."

Universities from 38 countries appear in the top 300, and from 32 in the top 200, three up on 2010. Almost 3,000 institutions were included in the research that produced the latest rankings, with 712 featuring in the results.

North America and the United Kingdom continue to dominate the rankings. US universities occupy 13 of the top 20 and 70 of the top 300 places. Despite higher rankings from McGill (up two places at 17th, the highest ranked university outside the US and the UK) and Toronto (up six to 23rd), 14 of 19 Canadian universities ranked lower than in 2010. In the UK, four universities made the top 10 and 18 were in the top 100.

In 18th place, ETH Zurich remains the leading university in continental Europe, ahead of the École Normal Supérieur (33rd), the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (35th) and l'Institut des Sciences et Technologies Paris (36th).

No German university makes the top 50 despite the federal government's EUR1.9 billion (US$2.7 billion) Excellence Initiative. Heidelberg and the Technische Universität München are placed 53rd and 54th respectively, trailing the leading Danish university (Copenhagen) at 52nd. The highest placed Swedish university, Uppsala, falls from 62nd to 83rd.

Australian universities again performed strongly, with all G8 universities in the top 100. The Australian National University (26th) ranked highest, with Melbourne (31st) closing the gap from 18 places to five, while Sydney is placed 38th.

Top universities in Asia are also highly placed with Hong Kong University (22nd) ahead of Tokyo (25th), the National University of Singapore (28th) and Kyoto (32th). India's difficulties in making an impact continue, with the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, dropping out of the top 200. But in China, Tsinghua (47th) has joined Peking (46th) in the top 50.

Ten universities are represented in the top 200 for the first time, including the Universidad Nacional Autóma de Mexico and the Universidade de São Paulo in Brazil (169th).

In 200th place King Saud University, in Saudi Arabia, makes the top 200 for the first time, with six other Middle Eastern universities in the top 300. The University of Cape Town, the only African institution to make the top 200, is in 156th place, up five places from last year.

For the first time this year the QS results are published alongside comparative data for international tuition fees.

Nunzio Quacquarelli, QS managing director, said: "Since students are generally being charged more than ever before for their education, QS is publishing for the first time ever comparative course fees of ranked universities