Backlash at Rishi Sunak’s plans to limit international students
November 28, 2022
The new British PM has suggested limiting international students coming into the UK as a way of curbing immigration. He suggested that only international students who have been accepted into top-tier universities be admitted. His comments and ideas were greeted by immediate pushback. Many remember that 10 years ago when the UK did away with its post-graduation work programs, the UK had an immediate drop off in enrollments. Additionally, this idea goes against the UK’s national recruitment strategy. All too often, international students get caught up in the bigger immigration issues.
“Higher education is one of our few globally competitive sectors and strong demand reflects its high standing in countries that are central to our post-Brexit positioning, including India. Finally, it’s hard to imagine a policy more likely to harm UK ambitions to become a science superpower and to level up across the country than a mindless crackdown on international students.”
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International students drive grad-school growth
November 30, 2022
Shorelight recently published a data analysis detailing international education’s rebound in 2022. This week’s article from Karin Fischer highlights the fact that much of the growth is from graduate students. Council of Graduate Schools reports that new international student enrollment in graduate programs was up 95% for fall 2022, while domestic student enrollment dipped by 4%. As always, Ms. Fischer does a good job of reporting the facts and asking important questions for universities to consider as they look ahead.
“Real-time student-visa data don’t break out visa issuances by academic level, so we can’t answer that question definitively. Still, I think we can be confident that international-graduate enrollments have continued to increase this fall. That’s because of robust growth in visas issued to students from India, which is predominantly a graduate-student market.”
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US gun violence deterring students as safety concerns grow
November 29, 2022
“William Gertz, chairman of the American Institute for Foreign Study, said, ’While the number of our international students enrolling in high schools and colleges in the US remains strong, we are concerned with mass shootings and gun violence.
‘This is a ‘slow drip’ rather than a torrent with more students asking questions and some diverting to destinations which are perceived to be safer – for example, Canada,’ he added.
A recent survey of international students in Canada found that the country’s reputation as a safe country was one of the key factors students considered when choosing where to study.”
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Study Shows Small Emergency Grants Can Help College Students Stay in School
November 28, 2022
Shorelight has always been focused on student success. Ensuring students not only make it through their first-year programs but excel is a priority for our teams. While this article is focused on domestic students, it highlights that a little bit of help goes a long way to supporting high levels of retention.
“Since 2018, of the nearly 2,000 students across the six campuses who received the grants — which by design could not be used to pay tuition — 94% were still enrolled in college, or had successfully graduated or completed their program of study, in the semester immediately following receipt of their award. Nationally, and at the SUNY campuses overall, the rate is 76%. In addition, 90% of grant recipients receiving an award in fall 2019 were re-enrolled in fall 2020, a rate 14% percentage points higher than retention rates seen on the six campuses as a whole and for full-time students nationally.”
Get the full story on The 74 >
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