Europe

A new national strategy for the export of UK vocational and education and training (VET) could lead to a "step change” in the way providers do business, industry body TVET UK has claimed. The UK government announced the development of the strategy earlier this month, pledging support for the underfunded sector.

More feeder schools are needed to help international students come to grips with studying in the UK, the British Association of International Schools and Colleges has argued. 35% of boarders at UK independent schools are from abroad, but many struggle to adapt academically and socially.

"The first move in the wrong direction since 2005" is how Tony Millns, chief executive of English UK, described a negative growth rate in student weeks charted by the ELT sector association for 2011. Speaking at the association's AGM, Millns explained that student weeks fell 5.3% across the 440 UK member schools, with the adult sector faring worst.

Non-UK European students could be charged full fees at Scottish universities while local students are reimbursed, under plans to keep HE free for Scots. Scotland says it is losing £75 million a year due to an EU law which states member countries must charge students from elsewhere in the EU the same fees they charge to domicile students.

The number of student visas issued by the UK in the first quarter of 2012 fell 62%. The news comes a day after the Office of National Statistics revealed that the government is failing badly to meet its target to reduce net migration. According to ONS the figure was 252,000 between January and March – miles off the 100,000 sought by 2015.

Forward-thinking ELT publishers and service providers were recognised at the ELTons in London – the British Council’s annual awards celebrating innovation in the UK and beyond. Winners included Macmillan Education and Bell.

The UK’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has commissioned research into the UK's private education sector to chart the actual size and USP of private education colleges. The aim is to give ministers a better picture of the HE/FE sector landscape, uncovering key statistics relating to international student population.

Fifty per cent of language schools and 41% of educational agencies saw growth in the first quarter of 2012, according to the latest language travel survey from ALTO. France, Malta, Germany and Ireland were particularly upbeat in terms of language teaching destinations.

In an announcement yesterday, Santander Universities Global Division said it would fund 21 Latin Americans to study or research at Goldsmiths University, UK. It is the 60th such agreement for the bank in the UK...

The UK government is to extend pre-entry tuberculosis (TB) screening to an additional 67 countries identified as having 'high incidence' of the disease by the World Health Organisation. Some of these countries, such as China, Korea, Nigeria and Kazakhstan, represent important student source countries.

A new pilot project offering Chinese in Spain's language summer camp market will launch this June. Organisers, English Summer, are keen to be Spain's first and only Chinese summer camp...

Cambridge Education Group (CEG), one of the UK’s leading pathway operators, is to expand globally, making its first foray into international markets with new programmes in Boston and Amsterdam. The news comes after the company's recent announcement of major success and recapitalisation – tripling the size of the business in five years.

A new report that claims the UK’s cap on international students could cost the country up to £6 billion has caused a wave of media attention this week, including coverage in all British broadsheets and mentions on the BBC. The report from the IPPR claims that ministers have wrongly included overseas students in the government's net migration count.

Studying in France may about to become more attractive thanks to a pledge from the new French President, Francois Hollande, to overturn the infamous Circulaire du 31 Mai – related to post-study work and residency visas...

Top education agents from Russia, Ukraine and Turkey have said they will more aggressively promote Canada and Canadian language teaching institutions according to an Agent Satisfaction Survey, part of a six month follow-up to Languages Canada’s trade mission to three target markets...