The school has recently signed an agreement with pathway provider NCC Education to offer the International Foundation Year (IFY) programme.

“We feel that this programme presents international students with a far greater choice of post course opportunities”

NCC Education has articulation agreements with universities in a range of subject fields within Business, IT and Engineering. Partner universities include the University of Leeds, Kingston University and Oxford Brookes University in the UK as well as Thompson Rivers University  in Canada and four US-based universities including Heidelberg University and Southern Oregon University.

“We chose the NCC Education IFY as we feel that this programme presents international students with a far greater choice of post course opportunities compared to other foundation programmes that are linked to just one university,” Director of IH Manchester Peter Hayes told The PIE News.

Hayes forecasts that in the first year,  total annual student weeks will increase 30% with the introduction of the new programme.

“However, since our affiliation with International House World Organisation in September 2013, our student numbers are already four times up on the same period last summer,” he added.

“We conservatively believe that the new IFY programme has the potential to grow 20% year on year.”

IH Manchester has also actively  started working with some universities in the local Manchester area in order to complement the links the IFY course has gained through its NCC Education accreditation.

“We feel that by allowing our students to make campus visits, attend open days, and faculty interviews while they are studying for their IFY with us, allows them to make a much more informed choice as to which course, campus feel and department most closely matches their needs and wants,” explained Hayes.

“To us, this is a clear advantage over an international student committing to one particular UK university from afar only to find that the reality of their chosen course and university does not meet their expectations once they arrive,” he added.