News

Pearson, the education and media giant, is to launch a private higher education college in the UK next month, in a symbolic first step into the small but growing private higher education market. Its first courses will be industry-linked, "designed by business, delivered with business", but the college will not have degree-awarding powers...

A clear link has been unveiled by a specialist international education web portal between the jobless rate in an EU country and the proportion of students interested in studying abroad. Italian, Greek, Spanish and Portuguese students have all recorded a increase in interest in study abroad of around 150%.

City of Wolverhampton College, UK, will stop recruiting non-EU students to certain courses after immigration officials uncovered high levels of truancy at the FE college. From September students from outside Europe will no longer be accepted on level 3 courses – equivalent to A-level and below...

Indian and Pakistani university students in the UK are being targeted in a telephone scam in which perpetrators masquerade as immigration officials to extort money from them on the threat of deportation. The breach is not thought to stem from UKBA but possibly mobile phone accounts or websites that allow cv-posting.

Canadian education exports grew healthily between 2008 and 2010 from CA$6.5billion to $8billion, a government-commissioned report on the tertiary, pre-secondary and language sectors has shown. It recommends international education should be better “recognised and supported” relative to other similar sized exports.

British education providers can play an important role in helping meeting the education development goals of Commonwealth countries, the CEO of Cambridge International Examinations said yesterday...

New moves are being made to ensure accreditation of universities and colleges is satisfactory in the USA, following a report highlighting weaknesses in the system. A bill to ensure HE institutions have relevant accreditation made it through the first stage of government process this week...

Less than half of language schools worldwide said their enrolments grew in the second quarter of 2012 compared with last year, according to the latest language travel survey from the Association of Language Travel Organisations (ALTO). Inversely, business was up for agents with 45% reporting growth over 41%.

All English language students studying in the Canterbury region of New Zealand will now be able to work part-time to supplement their income, as the NZ government moves to shore up the local industry, which suffered a 37% decline in business last year. Industry operators strongly endorsed the decision.

From stocking the fridge with food to organising an internship; a new luxury concierge service for international students in the UK has been unveiled for those with enough cash to outsource all their "life laundry". The price tag is not cheap, but the company behind the initiative believes there will be demand...

A delegation of Presidents and VPs from top Chinese research universities visited Australia last week to further agreements on HE exchange between China and scholars at Australia's Group of Eight (Go8) universities...

Auckland, New Zealand, has unveiled an ambitious plan to attract more international students by 2025, elevating its status as New Zealand’s number-one study destination. It is keen to take a cross-sectoral partnership approach in building the city’s appeal, which fits with NZ’s wider growth plans for the industry.

A new tuition protection scheme (TPS) in Australia is deterring education agents from sending students to the country as well as placing financial restraints on providers, sources have told The PIE News. However, others defend the scheme in intent if not practice and suggest Australian providers need to adapt.

The UK coalition government has granted the sixth private college ever the power to award its own degrees in a bid to open up the HE sector to private providers. Regent’s College says it now plans to apply for university status...

The number of English-taught Masters courses available in Europe has risen dramatically in the last five years, according to research from the Institute of International Education (IIE), USA. The Netherlands and Germany top the list in terms of number of programmes offered.