Latest international education news

King College International is to launch an English language learning and football programme in Spain...

Turkey, Jordan and Georgia are the latest countries to join a new system in which all UK visa applications must be paid for online and in dollars. The countries will join the system from January 30. From next month, appointment booking for biometric checking also becomes automated online.

South Korean universities say that they are keen to boost Latin American enrolment after numbers from that market more than doubled in three years. One link-up with Guatemala has already occurred...

For us, the internet was key to our success. For many younger agencies, schools... it has truly helped them to develop positively.

US think-tank the National Center on Education and the Economy this week launched a research centre to benchmark the world’s most successful education systems against each other.

Indian enrolments in Germany shot up 24% in 2011, thanks to scholarships, English-medium courses and restrictive visa conditions in rival study destinations. German plans to increase work and residence rights for international students should accentuate the growth in 2012.

London-based Malvern House, part of AEC Education, has announced international expansion in 2012 with centres opening in Ireland and Oman. Meanwhile, Malvern House London is repositioning itself, with upgraded facilities, reduced class sizes, new programmes and a new price structure.

Cambridge Education Group is to open a new Stafford House School of English in Brighton, UK, at the end of April. The school will offer adult language courses and be be situated on Brighton’s beachfront.

Indian students can meet Australian university representatives online at the IDP virtual student fair, which is running for the next week or so. IDP is also staging roadshows across the country.

The number of international branch campuses worldwide will continue to grow, new research has found; however, much of the activity will move from the Middle East towards East Asia. ‘South to South’ campuses – where both the home and host institutions are in the ‘developing’ world - are also on the up.

English UK has been successful in forcing a backtrack over the story of banned colleges which was distributed by the media last year after a briefing by the UK Border Authority. UKBA has laid the blame at the media, insisting two lists of colleges were distributed to press.

Wellington College, one of the UK’s leading private boarding schools, is to open a Mandarin centre in April in the UK and two further schools in China...

Ireland-based English language teaching company, CES, has announced two new ventures opening in the UK; in Oxford and Leeds, achieved through acquisition. This firmly cements CES's standing as a medium-sized chain school and also helps put Leeds on the English language learning map.

Tapping growing Chinese demand, International Student Insurance (ISI) has launched a Chinese language portal website. It is also working through Chinese social media and search engines to reach more students...