North America

British Study Study Centres (BSC) has become an international brand by acquiring American operator, Access to Language Studies, which has operations in New York, Boston and San Diego. This is a new development for the British group and means a new BSC America brand.

Canadian immigration services have promised to improve students visa processing times in another major student market, Nigeria, after complaints about lengthy delays. In December, CIC opened six new visa applications centres in Africa before launching a major drive to improve processing efficiency worldwide.

The UK has announced a new visa route for 2013 to encourage entrepreneurs to stay on in the country – focusing on a "quality over quantity" approach to immigration. Immigration Minister Damian Green gave a speech last week and spoke about a "principle of selectivity".

US president Barack Obama has called on congress to make it easier for international students to work in America after they graduate. He criticised current regulations, saying the US was educating then sending home highly skilled graduates with no benefit to the economy.

Nine mostly US universities have been honoured for their outstanding internationalisation efforts in awards from the Institute of International Education (IIE)...

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.

The National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) has named the members of its commission on international recruitment practices that will decide the fate of US-oriented education agents in 2013. They announced their goal was to be "as open and inclusive as possible".

The language school hosting the 2012 workshop for IALC is offering a scholarship each week to education agents...

Education agencies approved under the AIRC accreditation system may no longer be able to take commission on any form of financial aid, or even substantially change their business operational procedure without AIRC approval, under revisions to the scheme being voted upon currently.

Languages Canada and Scotiabank this week announced a sponsorship agreement that will offer banking advice to more than 130,000 international language education students studying in Canada each year...

A new online funds verification service has launched in beta-mode in the USA. It could revolutionise the way universities and governments verify the financial standing of international students, side-stepping the need for paper copies of bank documents, speeding up the recruitment process and reducing visa fraud.

Fifty education delegates from British Columbia joined the province’s largest ever trade mission to India and China last month, in an ongoing drive to attract international students. The University of British Columbia also announced the opening of two offices in India which will enable it to build ties with country’s private and public sectors.

"Ninety per cent of those who said we should continue to ban [per-head commission payments] internationally cited concern for students. For those who said we should not ban it, ninety per cent talked about it from a business model. So it’s definitely a bi-modal view."

Canada has a golden opportunity to boost its profile as a study destination, said industry figures last week at the CBIE conference. One commentator said, “People have been keeping an eye for years on what Australia is doing, but now it's Canada." Efforts to act cohesively and use visa policy as an incentive are planned to capitalise on international student growth.

Grammy award-winning hip hop artist will.i.am will hold a concert in Beijing, December 17th, to build support for the US State Department’s 100,000 Strong...