North America

Government immigration policy was a recurrent theme at this year’s Languages Canada conference in Vancouver. Many said it threatened the gains made by the association over the last few years, as well as opportunities posed by the new national strategy on international education to be unveiled in June.

The number of Americans studying full degrees in the UK has shot up 15% in the last three years according to new data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), with factors including shorter courses, price and high esteem among employers relevant...

During a diplomatic mission to Beijing last week, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper renewed a scholarship scheme that will enable more Canadians to study in China – a sign of the increasing national support for international education in Canada.

INTO University Partnerships, the UK-based pathway provider, is to launch a new pathway programme in the USA in partnership with Colorado State University. It expects to welcome a first intake of 350 pathway students in August 2012, rising to 1,000 within five years.

In a bid to attract and retain more highly skilled foreign graduates, the USA has announced a series of reforms to ease barriers to study and work. These include extending post-study work rights for STEM students and enabling spouses to study on academic courses in the USA.

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...