12 | FEATURE | UNIVERSIT Y BUSINESS


THE CONFUCIUS INSTITUTE


C HALLENG ING TIME S F OR WIN N I NG INTERNAT I ONAL ST U DENT SHARE


Mark Ferguson reviews the latest developments in international UK higher education institute (HEI) funding, and best practice in the increasingly challenging clamour for a share of the global student market


W


hile UK HEIs receive no public funding for their international student teaching or other overseas activities, and


student visa regulations are emerging as a significant hurdle to recruitment, the market continues to prove important. First, the potential bad news as


underlined by new immigration minister James Brokenshire, who used his first speech in post to insist that students should continue to be counted as immigrants, and that some universities will find it difficult to keep their student visa licences. Under pressure on immigration figures


indicating a net migration increase of 30% to 212,000 in the year to September, versus a Conservative pledge to reduce net migration to tens of thousands by 2015, he has expressed ‘considerable concerns’ regarding some educational institutions. Speaking at an event in March, Mr.


Brokenshire said: “Currently, the threshold at which education institutions lose their right to sponsor overseas students is a refusal rate of 20%. That is the equivalent of one in five of the people HEIs are prepared to offer places to being refused by the Home Office because they cannot demonstrate that they are genuine students. He stated that existing rules were


extremely generous, and added: “The vast majority of education institutions are nowhere near that refusal rate. But some are, which gives rise to considerable concerns about those institutions and their approach. The trusted status given to universities and colleges who want to atract foreign students isn’t an automatic right, and it is one that carries responsibilities.” It is against this backdrop, and a recent


decline in the number of UK students taking postgraduate and part-time


courses, that the UK university sector cautiously monitors developments while implementing fresh strategies aimed at benefiting from internationalisation. They further argue that overseas


recruitment represents not only a significant source of revenue, it also makes it possible for UK students to live and work with people and benefit from a variety of countries and cultures. This collaborative approach in turn results in growing international networks, strategic partnerships and joint research – all of which enhances learning and delivers solutions to a variety of global problems. The expanding market for international


student share is, naturally, a global one, and coming to the UK to study is not always the cheapest option. At a practical level, students from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) are expected to pay the full cost of their tuition fees, which can


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