Latest international education news

Brazil has again dominated the QS Latin American university rankings, with a total of 81 institutions in the top 300 and Universidade de Sao Paolo (USP) taking the top spot for the third year in a row. QS said that the rankings showed the growing importance of Latin HE on the world stage but that resistance to English-taught programmes hindered universities' competitiveness.

University Vice-Chancellors from India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have agreed to work together to internationalise their campuses following a roundtable meeting in New Delhi, India. The meeting was chaired by the British university Anglia Ruskin.

Toughened student visa rules could cost the UK £2.4bn over the next decade as students opt for rival study destinations, new research claims. A report from Universities UK warns that Canada and the US would likely pick up the lost business, estimated to be worth around £350 million ($537m) a year.

The world's most recognised form of student identification, the International Student Identity Card (ISIC), is to launch a new "virtual identity card", which allows users to search for student concessions online wherever they are in the world.

US Intensive English Programs have learnt that their sector likely grew last year in terms of student numbers and weeks. According to preliminary data from IIE released at NAFSA 2013, a 10% incline for 2012 was experienced, with Saudi Arabia the most important student market followed by China and South Korea.

Hundreds of international students have learned they will not be compensated for lost wages after the Australian cleaning contractor they worked for went under – despite the fact their Australian colleagues will be covered by law. Critics are calling on the government to compensate the students.

EducationUSA – the government body tasked with promoting US education abroad – has launched a new mobile app allowing international students who want to study in the US to access information about the opportunities available to them.

The number of Indian students at Russian universities increased by almost 60 per cent to 450 in 2012, up from 280 in 2011. Indians are said to be attracted by Russia's affordable, well recognised education system.

The University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School has become the latest global business school to offer international students bank-backed loans to support their studies. The pilot programme is with Banco Santander.

International students tend to think that online and offshore degree courses are inferior to those delivered at an institution’s home campus, new research from Hotcourses claims. They also may not be getting enough information to make a fair decision about them, it adds.

As the US immigration reform bill undergoes its final mark up, international educators have raised concerns that last minute amendments could derail the country’s largest work and travel exchange scheme, the Exchange Visitor Program. Concerns also remain in the HE sector about provisions, although NAFSA says it broadly supports the bill.

It is frustrating, because we do have a world class FE system and international students want to take advantage of that. It would be very welcome if our border agency was more embracing of that.

Demand for international schools places is soaring with Hong Kong, South Korea, Indonesia, Qatar, Malaysia and Singapore offering the best investment opportunities for foreign providers, new research has claimed. Demand is being driven by the rising prosperity of local families.

From 2014, Chileans could be able to travel to the USA without having to request a visa, prompting not only more tourism for America but study abroad traffic as well. The two countries are close to signing an agreement over the US Visa Waiver Program, which allows visa-free travel to the US for up to 90 days.