In the UK, Cambridge Education Group has revealed a new partnership with Loughborough University, while Canada’s Braemar College has announced an extension of its partnership with the University of Toronto, in the form of the Toronto Pathway.

Study Group has recently also renewed its decade-long partnership University College Dublin, and the Dublin International Study Centre will now run until at least 2026.

Managing director for UK and Europe at the pathway provider, James Pitman, said the extended agreement will offer Study Group and UCD the “opportunity to expand and diversify our recruitment ambitions together as we continue to widen student participation in global education post-pandemic”.

“[The agreement is] a real vote of confidence in our partnership”

The agreement is “a real vote of confidence in our partnership”, he added.

LeapScholar has also now launched its latest hybrid partnership targeting Indian students that it says will offer an engineering pathway “at a much lower cost”.

The deal with private research institution Case Western Reserve University in the US will see LeapScholar bring the institution’s Computer Science MS to Indian students.

The program will partly be delivered in India and the rest on-campus in Cleveland, Ohio, with the partners promoting the opportunity for STEM degree graduates to qualify for a three-year post-study work visa upon graduation.

The hybrid format will reduce the cost of the program by almost 40% (approximately US$39,996), they added, and the need for GRE/GMAT and English proficiency test scores has been waived.

“With the demand for STEM programs rising, the latest partnership with CWRU will bring their popular engineering program to Indian students in a hybrid format, and at a much lower cost,” Vaibhav Singh, co-founder of Leap said, of the program starting August 2023.

The Charles H. Phipps dean of the Case School of Engineering, Venkataramanan “Ragu” Balakrishnan, added that the “innovative hybrid learning platform… leverages the unique assets of the graduate engineering programs in both institutions to deliver high-quality education and strengthens the CWRU presence in India”.

In the UK, CEG’s partnership with Loughborough is an “exciting development” in the institution’s internationalisation plan, according to vice-chancellor and president, Nick Jennings.

Under the agreement, Loughborough will join CEG’s ONCAMPUS portfolio, which has 22 partnerships worldwide, to create a dedicated on-campus education centre.

It will give international students a pathway to a range of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, with the first students set to be welcomed from September 2023.

“Expanding the international diversity of our university community and offering a more culturally enriching experience for all our students and staff are key aims of our strategic plan,” Jennings said.

“The partnership with CEG will enable us to take a significant step forward in that ambition, and also help us to grow our global reputation.”

CEG said the partnership with Loughborough University the only part of its growth strategy that helps to meet the demand for UK-based pathway programs for international students.

“We continue to look at hybrid and in-country opportunities, as well as diversifying provision and partnerships outside of the UK, such as recently with KEDGE Business School in Paris, to develop the portfolio and meet our evolving customer needs,” Nikki Pegram, ONCAMPUS senior marketing manager, told The PIE.

Competitor, INTO University Partnerships, has recently developed an in-country pathway model, which will see the provider open University Access Centres in markets worldwide. NCUK has partnered with The Royal Colosseum and Beaconhouse International College, both in Pakistan, to deliver foundation year courses.

But on-campus is still important for pathway providers. For example, OIEG and Kaplan signed new partnerships in the US and Australia in 2022.

Like Study Group and UCD, which have been collaborating for a number of years, Braemar College has extended a long-standing agreement with University of Toronto.

The partners have been formally working together since 2014, and the new program takes the collaboration to the next level, Blair McDonald, director of Braemar College, said.

“With the Toronto Pathway, we’ve put everything we learned into one exclusive program”

“Over the years, Braemar College has sent more students to the University of Toronto than to any other university in Canada,” he said.

The program “provides full-spectrum support”, including one-on-one tutoring across subject fields, language proficiency tutoring and testing, detailed monthly reports to parents, and admissions support.

Braemar saw a growing demand for an “enhanced pathway to get ambitious students ready for Canada’s top university” after the disruption of the pandemic, McDonald continued.

“With the Toronto Pathway, we’ve put everything we learned into one exclusive program. We’ve designed it not only to prepare students to meet the University of Toronto’s challenging entrance criteria.

“It also gives our students the essential skills they’ll need—not just to survive their undergraduate programs, but to thrive.”