Germany

The German government is to provide universities with the largest amount of funding for internationalisation projects ever. Eighteen universities will have access to €1m each over four years to develop partnerships with institutions overseas.

Demand to learn German in Spain has surpassed that of French for the first time, following a 15% spike in interest in the language last year. Driving the trend is a desire among learners to find work in Germany and escape high levels of unemployment at home, with fluency their only barrier.

The number of Indian students in Germany continues to rise thanks to a combination of low fees, internationalised universities and improved student work rights, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) has claimed. Enrolments grew 19% in 2011-12 to nearly 6,000, with sources claiming the UK's tough new visa rules were driving the trend.

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%.

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.

Overseas students registered at German universities passed a record 250,000 in 2011 with the largest group coming from China. This is up from 233,600 in 2008 with those from overseas now representing 11.4% of all students in Germany, according to a new report from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).

Upping its internationalisation efforts, Germany has passed new legislation making it easier for international students and academics to remain in the country after their studies. DAAD wants to increase its international student population to 300,000 by 2012 and says the new rules will help...