Edtech

US-based online payment platform peerTransfer has this month processed over $1bn in international education payments. After a concerted push for global expansion in 2014, the company recently welcomed its 500th client when it signed up Bournemouth University, home to 2,000 international students.

The US Department of State is partnering with CollegeWeekLive, an online platform which provides video conferencing facilities and resources for students, to deliver a series of virtual college fairs to entice more international students to study in the US. Virtual event success means they are now considered "equally important" to traditional events.

Almost two-thirds of international students consider offline communication as important as online information when researching higher education options according to a TopUniversities.com survey of some 2,000 students.

Student recruitment company Hotcourses has launched its "virtual agency services" for Indian students interested in higher education programmes. The move will expand the company's portfolio which already includes a university course search site and online application services.

The British Council has launched an interactive data visualisation tool to illustrate trends in international student mobility and the UK's changing role as both a study destination and source of international students between 1996 and 2012. The tool also reveals the impact of UK policy decisions and global socio-economic events on inbound study.

The top 20 most innovative and fastest growing e-learning companies in Europe were named by education technology firm Edxus Group at its EdTech Europe summit in London last week. Online language learning social network Busuu.com, which enables users to talk to native speakers via video chat, topped the list,

Expanding broadband infrastructure is the key to improving education in Africa a roundtable of ministers from across the continent concluded last month. The gathering was part of the 9th eLearning Africa conference in Kampala Uganda attended by over 1,500 education and technology stakeholders.

Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) giant Coursera has lifted restrictions to students in Iran put in place earlier this year in compliance with US export control regulations. The restrictions on provision in Iran, Cuba, Syria and Sudan came into force when the US government released "a clearer interpretation" of how export control regulations relate to MOOCs.

Coursera, the largest platform support Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), has announced eight new partners in its blended learning programme, Learning Hubs. In order to increase access to educational content for students around the world, it has also launched a Global Translator Community.

Last week Minerva Schools at KGI based in the USA announced that it will welcome two sections of its founding classes in September. The institution claims to have "reinvented the university experience" with online delivery and will be granting the first cohort of students four years' of free tuition.

The University of Melbourne and Tsinghua University have partnered to develop a cloud-based 'virtual campus' that will enable joint course delivery and research collaboration. This is the latest agreement in a longstanding relationship between the two universities.

The British Boarding Schools Workshop (BBSW) used its recent workshop to introduce its new database and online “web community” to over 250 delegates this month. The news was announced at another successful workshop that also featured a look-a-like Queen and Rolls Royce trip to Windsor Castle.

Despite the familiar "no cap" mantra, minutes from the latest meeting of the UK's International Education Council (IEC) reveal that there is in fact a clear government commitment to removing barriers to enhancing international education exports.

The UK higher education sector has a new marketing and recruitment company, UniQuest, joining the ranks of specialised agencies helping universities and colleges benefit from big data, marketing insight and a strategic approach to international student enrolment.

This week an online Masters degree in English Language Teaching will be launched worldwide by the University of Southampton in collaboration with the British Council after successfully training teachers in Mexico for five years.