MARKET NEWS BULLETIN:

29TH AUGUST – 11TH SEPTEMBER 2015

Compiled by Jamie Aston

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Contents

Summary Section - UK

- USA and Canada

- Australia and New Zealand

- Asia

- International

Full Articles - UK

- USA and Canada

- Australia and New Zealand

- Asia

- International

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Summary Section

UK Back to top

UK net migration at record high, prompting further restriction concerns :: The Pie News :: 28th August

UK Immigration Minister James Brokenshire indicated yesterday that there is “more to do” to decrease the number of non-EU students staying in the country post-graduation.

Theresa May: only migrants with jobs should be let in to UK :: The Guardian :: 30th August

The home secretary has been looking into further tightening up the rules surrounding student visas, with a leaked document sent to ministers showing she was considering requiring international students to demonstrate they had significant independent financial means before offering them a place to study. The document suggests that universities be forced to “develop sustainable funding models that are not so dependent on international students”.

LSBF’s Tier 4 licence to recruit internationally suspended :: The Pie News :: 8th September

The London School of Business and Finance has been removed from the register of Tier 4 sponsors that designates which UK institutions can recruit international students, for the second time in 15 months.

Scottish educators aiming for expanded post-graduation work rights :: ICEF Monitor :: 1st September

In essence, this recommendation anticipates a distinct visa process for international graduates of Scottish institutions. At present, foreign students in Scotland must apply for a visa via the UK Home Office, thereby placing Scotland-bound students under the same increasingly restrictive policies that apply to all students hoping to study in the UK.

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USA and Canada Back to top

US records year-on-year overseas student growth :: Study Travel Magazine :: 8th September

The US has recorded a nine per cent year-on-year growth in July 2015 over the same period in 2014, according to the latest data released by the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP).

Student and Exchange Visitor Program Quarterly Review :: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement :: August 2015

What is the student and exchange visitor program (sevp)? The Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP), a program within the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), acts as a bridge for government organizations that have an interest in information on nonimmigrants whose primary reason for coming to the United States is to be students. On behalf of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), SEVP manages schools, nonimmigrant students in the F & M visa classifications and their dependents.

All Eyes on China :: Inside Higher Ed :: 11th September All Eyes on ChinaWill a slowing Chinese economy lead to a decline in the number of international students in the U.S.?

Australia and New Zealand Back to top

Big-spending international students opt for high-cost courses :: Australian Financial Review :: 30th August

International students tend to choose high-cost courses when they come to Australia, opting for prestige over value for money, according to a new study from the Grattan Institute.

The price of prestige: how university status affects fees :: The Conversation :: 30th August

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Although removing the cap on undergraduate student fees remains controversial, deregulated fees are not unusual in Australian higher education. A third of public university students already pay market fees. International students make up the majority. The rest, around 140,000 domestic students, take mostly postgraduate coursework degrees.

Australian Immigration Cancels Over Ten Thousand International Student Visas :: Study international :: 2nd

September Authorities of Australian immigration have revoked close to 11,000 visas of ‘non-genuine’ students, an increase of nearly a third on the figure from last year.

New code of ethics for international education agents in Australia :: International Business Times :: 31st August

Education and Training Minister Christopher Pyne announced a new code of ethics for international education agents at the Australian Council for Private Education and Training’s Asia Pacific International Education Forum and National Conference held in Melbourne on Friday. The new set of code of ethics will focus on ensuring enhancement of the quality and image of global education sector of Australia.

Asia Back to top

China crisis: what does it mean for student recruitment? :: Times Higher Education :: 28th August

Currency devaluation and economic slowdown could stymie lucrative market

International Back to top

First global conference on HE internationalisation :: University World News :: 29th August

The first Global Conference on Internationalisation of Higher Education will be held in August next year, in South Africa’s huge Kruger Park game reserve. The event flows from the first inclusive Global Dialogue held in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, in January 2014, attended by 24 international education organisations from across the world.

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MOOCs inspire a new style of cheating, research reveals :: The Pie News :: 9th September

MOOC classes are an all together unique learning experience so it’s no surprise that they also inspire new ways of cheating. Researchers at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology have discovered a new method of cheating, facilitated by the online learning environment, that could ultimately threaten the credibility of MOOC completion certificates.

Four trends that are shaping the future of global student mobility :: ICEF Monitor :: 2nd September

Every now and then, we find it helpful to step back from the steady tide of market reports and information and think about some of the larger trends that are influencing international student mobility. Here are four that are likely to have a profound impact on global education markets for the next decade and more.

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Full Articles

UK Back to top

UK net migration at record high, prompting further restriction concerns

By Natalie Marsh :: The Pie News :: 28th August http://thepienews.com/news/uk-net-migration-at-record-high-prompting-further-restriction-

concerns/ UK Immigration Minister James Brokenshire indicated yesterday that there is “more to do” to decrease the number of non-EU students staying in the country post-graduation. His statement followed new statistics showing net migration is at the highest it has ever been, and prompted fears that more restrictions may be on the way. The figures, released yesterday by the Office of National Statistics, show net migration reached 330,000 in the twelve months ending March 2015, which Brokenshire described as “deeply disappointing”. “With nearly 100,000 non-EU students remaining in the UK at the end of their courses and British business still overly reliant on foreign workers in a number of sectors there is much more to do,” he said. His statement follows efforts to reduce visa abuse and the announcement last month that students at further education colleges must return home immediately after graduating before applying for a new visa. “The next fear though is that the Migration Advisory Committee might recommend much higher hurdles for students to transfer to Tier 2 when it reports in the autumn,” Dominic Scott, chief executive of the UK Council for International Student Affairs, told The PIE News. “If it did, we would certainly expect further damage.” The committee has already been asked to consider increasing the salary thresholds for those seeking a Tier 2, skilled worker visa – the visa used by most international graduates who remain in the UK to work.

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The minister also said the government has asked for official advice on reducing economic migration from outside the EU. The figures show that the number of overseas students coming to the UK reached 188,000 in the year ending March 2015. Furthermore, it is estimated that 137,000 international students were non-EU long-term immigrants coming to study and who had an intention to remain a year or longer. However, for the year ending June 2015, Home Office statistics included in the report, which include short-term students staying in the UK for less than a year, show there was a slight decrease in the number of study visas granted. The number fell by 1% compared to the previous year, to 216,769. While there was an increase in study visas granted to Chinese nationals (+11%) and Malaysian nationals (+7%), other Asian countries displayed a major decline. The number of Indian students granted a visa declined by 10%, Pakistanis by 21% and Bangladeshis by 52%. Previous falls in students coming from these countries have been attributed to policy changes and restrictions on post-study work for foreign graduates. In addition, there was also a fall in visa applications for the further education sector, which show a 13% decrease, falling to 17,172, in the same twelve month period to June 2015. Visa applications from those wanting to study at UK universities showed a small increase of 0.2% to 167,426. “Many people will be worried that recruitment to universities appears virtually flat – when many other countries are increasing numbers quite substantially, that India is significantly down once again, as is recruitment to FE,” said Scott. “But given all the recent changes perhaps none of that is surprising,” he added. “One just hopes that some parts of government are looking and listening and seeing the damage being done to an industry with huge potential for growth.” Prime Minister David Cameron has previously said he wanted to reduce the overall net migration figures to under 100,000. However, there have been calls from the sector to take international students out of the net migration targets.

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“We have maintained for many years that international students are irrelevant to most peoples’ concerns about immigration and should be irrelevant to this whole debate – and of course six Parliamentary committees have recommended that they be excluded from any targets,” said Scott. Responding to the rise in the net migration statistics, Mark Hilton, director of immigration policy in at London First, said in a statement that the government “mustn’t use this record figure as another excuse to limit the sort of positive immigration that grows our economy”. “Our world-beating industries need access to talent and skills from around the world in order to remain global leaders,” he said. “But they are struggling to bring in the talent we lack because they’re hitting government limits for skilled workers.”

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Theresa May: only migrants with jobs should be let in to UK

By Frances Perraudin :: The Guardian :: 30th August http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/aug/30/theresa-may-says-only-migrants-with-jobs-

should-be-let-in-to-uk Only European migrants with a job lined up should be allowed into the UK, the home secretary, Theresa May, has said, arguing that current levels of migration are unsustainable. Her comments came after figures from the Office for National Statistics showed migration to Britain had hit a record high, reaching 330,000 in the past year to March. The rise comes despite a pledge made by David Cameron in 2011 to bring down immigration to the tens of thousands. “Net migration at that volume is simply unsustainable,” May wrote in an editorial in the Sunday Times. “It puts pressure on infrastructure, such as housing and transport – and public services, such as schools and hospitals.” She argued that the biggest single factor preventing the government from meeting its immigration target was net migration from the EU. “While net migration from outside the EU is 10% lower than it was in 2010, net migration from within the EU has more than doubled,” May said. “That is why this government’s renegotiation of Britain’s relationship with the EU is so important.” May said that suggesting migration cannot be controlled within the EU – which gives freedom of movement to member state nationals – was “defeatist and wrong” and flies in the face of the evidence. “Reducing net EU migration need not mean undermining the principle of free movement. When it was first enshrined, free movement meant the freedom to move to a job, not the freedom to cross borders to look for work or claim benefits.” Four in 10 of the migrants who came to the UK last year came with no job waiting for them, said May, and this “search for a better life” has had huge economic costs for the countries they’ve left behind. “A third of Portugal’s qualified nurses have migrated; 20% of the Czech Republic’s medical graduates leave as soon as they qualify; nearly 500 doctors are leaving Bulgaria every year.” The home secretary said countries across Europe were realising that the Schengen agreement – which produced Europe’s borderless area – has exacerbated the migration crisis that has dominated the continent this summer.

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“The events of this summer have shown that the most tragic consequences of a broken European migration system have been borne by those at risk of exploitation,” she said. “And the greatest beneficiaries have been the callous gangs who sell false dreams and trade on the free borders within the EU.” Earlier this month, May visited Calais to inspect new security measures preventing migrants from reaching England via the Channel tunnel. Up to 5,000 migrants are estimated to be in the French port, with at least nine people known to have died trying to make the journey into Britain since June. Unprecedented numbers of migrants are reaching EU borders, surpassing 100,000 in July alone and reaching more than 340,000 this year so far. Italy and Greece are struggling to cope with the daily influx of migrants and refugees, while Macedonia has declared a state of emergency. John Cridland, the director general of the CBI, said that evidence showed that the vast majority of EU migrants to the UK provided a benefit to the economy. He said the CBI would be concerned if EU workers were required to secure a job before arriving in the UK as it would “cause issues for firms without the capacity to advertise and recruit across the whole of Europe.” “Our hospitals and care homes couldn’t function without overseas workers; building sites that we need to deliver more homes and big infrastructure projects would also stall, for example,” said Cridland. “But the system must be about freedom to work, not for the minority who do not contribute, so the government should continue to work with our European partners to make sure the rules are fit for purpose for everyone.” May also took aim at international students, saying the link needed to be broken between “short-term study and permanent settlement in this country”. “But Thursday’s statistics clearly show that too many students are not here temporarily,” she said. “The gap between the number of non-EU students coming to this country and departing each year is 96,000 – half the net migration from beyond the EU. The home secretary has been looking into further tightening up the rules surrounding student visas, with a leaked document sent to ministers showing she was considering requiring international students to demonstrate they had significant independent financial means before offering them a place to study. The document suggests that universities be forced to “develop sustainable funding models that are not so dependent on international students”.

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LSBF’s Tier 4 licence to recruit internationally suspended

By Beckie Smith :: The Pie News :: 8th September http://thepienews.com/news/uk-lsbf-tier-4-licence-to-recruit-internationally-suspended/

The London School of Business and Finance has been removed from the register of Tier 4 sponsors that designates which UK institutions can recruit international students, for the second time in 15 months. LSBF’s removal from the register last Friday means that it cannot recruit new non-EU students and is “tantamount to a temporary suspension”, its spokesperson said. The college has also been removed from the Tier 2 sponsor register, meaning that it cannot sponsor skilled worker visa applications. It now has 20 days to appeal the decision. “Having received and reviewed the data supplied by UKVI, which relates to visa refusal and course completion rates and which led them to their decision, we are confident that LSBF is 100% compliant with its sponsor obligations,” the spokesperson said. “Accordingly, we expect that upon receipt by UKVI from PricewaterhouseCoopers of representations correcting errors in UKVI’s initial assessment, LSBF will be reinstated on the register of sponsors,” they added. However, if LSBF is found to have committed a serious breach of compliance requirements, the Home Office could sanction both the institution and its umbrella company, Global University Systems, with a Tier 4 licence ban of up to two years. Earlier this year, GUS acquired the University of Law, which could therefore stand to lose its Tier 4 sponsor status if LSBF’s licence is revoked. GUS also operates St Patrick’s College, which lost its licence to recruit international students earlier this year. LSBF is one of the UK’s largest private education providers and is the third biggest private recipient of public funding. Students already enrolled at LSBF may continue with their studies, but Home Office guidance “strongly advise[s]” students who have been granted a visa but have yet to come to the UK not to travel if their college is not on the sponsor register. This is the second time LSBF’s Tier 4 licence has been suspended since Immigration Minister James Brokenshire announced a mass suspension of licences at 57 private colleges last year.

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During an emergency statement in June 2014, Brokenshire singled out LSBF as an example of a college where students appeared to have flouted work regulations, saying that 290 foreign students enrolled there had worked and paid tax in 2013 despite not being allowed to work part-time during their studies. However, following a UKVI investigation, the college had its licence reinstated last September. The Home Office has said in its guidance that it “will not be providing a running commentary” on the suspension. However, its spokesperson commented: “Businesses and educational institutions that benefit from the immigration system must ensure they have robust recruitment and compliance systems in place or risk losing their privilege to sponsor workers and students. “We continually monitor all sponsors on the register and we will take action where we find evidence that a sponsor is not fulfilling all of its duties.”

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Scottish educators aiming for expanded post-graduation work rights

BY ICEF Monitor Staff :: ICEF Monitor :: 1st September http://monitor.icef.com/2015/09/scottish-educators-aiming-for-expanded-post-graduation-

work-rights/ We all now know that the September 2014 Scottish referendum ended with a majority vote (55.3%) against the proposition that Scotland establish itself as an independent country. Even so, the campaign leading up to the referendum ballot revealed some profound political tensions, and a strong drive on the part of Scotland to gain greater autonomy within the United Kingdom. Indeed, the referendum result, supported as it was by assurances from the UK government that it would transfer additional powers to the Scottish Parliament, has set the stage for a further, legislated devolution of power to Edinburgh. This process was formalised with the formation of the Smith Commission immediately in the wake of the referendum. The commission filed its report in November 2014, and among the many issues noted for further consideration was an item of particular interest to international educators: “The Scottish and UK governments should work together to explore the possibility of introducing formal schemes to allow international higher education students graduating from Scottish further and higher education institutions to remain in Scotland and contribute to economic activity for a defined period of time.” In essence, this recommendation anticipates a distinct visa process for international graduates of Scottish institutions. At present, foreign students in Scotland must apply for a visa via the UK Home Office, thereby placing Scotland-bound students under the same increasingly restrictive policies that apply to all students hoping to study in the UK. It wasn’t that long ago, however, that Scotland operated a distinct scheme for post-graduation work opportunities. Under the “Fresh Talent” programme, international students were able to stay in Scotland and work for up to two years after completing their academic programmes. “But [Fresh Talent] was scrapped in 2012,” notes The Scotsman. “Now, if students want to stay, they must re-apply under the more restrictive Tier 2 visa system.” In its formal submission to the Smith Commission, Universities Scotland set out the case for devolution of immigration powers to the Scottish Parliament: “The university sector’s most urgent ‘ask’ from a limited devolution of immigration policy is the capacity to re-introduce a two-year post-study work entitlement for international students graduating from Scottish higher education institutions.

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This could be limited to work entitlement in Scotland only, which would therefore have no impact on the management of migration totals in the rest of the UK. Such a move would deliver a positive benefit for Scotland, which has a strong cross-party consensus on the value of high-skill immigration. Furthermore, strict limitations on the location of work entitlement would respect the different views on immigration in parts of the rest of the UK and the UK government’s right to continue with its immigration policy.” In its May 2015 report on the devolution process, a special committee of the Scottish Parliament revisited the issue and noted, “The Committee reinforces the recommendation of the Smith Commission…and believes that this important issue should be addressed through discussion between the two governments in advance of the introduction of any new bill after the UK General Election.” The outcomes of any such discussions are not yet clear but the UK government introduced its proposed devolution legislation, the “Scotland Bill 2015/16″, on 28 May 2015. The bill continues to work its way through the legislative process with various amendments up to this writing. It is clear, however, that the political sentiment with respect to student migration is markedly different among policymakers in Edinburgh than is the case in London. Alastair Sim, Director of Universities Scotland, said earlier this year: “Scottish universities need action from government to improve its post-study work offer. We are losing out in key markets as our competitors take steps to attract more international student talent.” Alasdair Allan, the Minister for Learning, put it even more bluntly in a recent interview with The Scotsman: “The Scottish government is not on the same page as the UK government – we deplore irresponsible, negative rhetoric on immigration.” Trending the wrong way The issue of post-graduation work rights for international students finds its force in the recent trend of declining or falling enrolment for non-European Union students in Scottish institutions. Recent-year trends in Scotland mirror those in the UK as a whole. The number of non-EU students in Scotland grew marginally in 2013/14 (1% growth compared to 2012/13), after registering a modest decline the year before. Also mirroring the broader trend in the UK, first-year enrolments from key growth and emerging markets have fallen off sharply for Scotland over the last couple of years. Source countries such as China, India, and Nigeria all declined between 2012/13 and 2013/14 – by -2%, -12%, and -9% respectively. For the moment, some of those losses have been offset by countervailing gains from other markets, such as Canada (10% increase) and Thailand (+15%), but the softening enrolment from some of the world’s largest and most important education markets has certainly been alarming for educators and other stakeholders in Scotland.

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The £312 million question The latest Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) numbers indicate that 28,610 non-EU students were enrolled in Scottish higher education in 2013/14. A recent economic impact study by PwC in Scotland puts the number somewhat higher at 34,670 students for the 2014 calendar year (and for all levels of study). PwC calculates the gross economic impact of non-EU enrolment in Scotland at £312 million per year (roughly US$481 million), with a net benefit of £257 million to the Scottish economy. Lindsey Paterson is the consultancy’s higher education specialist in Scotland and she has said of the analysis, “Our Scottish universities and colleges are competing in a global marketplace and it’s vital that government supports them in attracting the brightest academic talent…With a lot at stake, not just for the Scottish and UK economy but for the future growth and prosperity of our higher education establishments, it’s clear that more needs to be done to inform and improve immigration policies and targets.” PwC has also argued that the UK would be better served by classifying international students as temporary visitors as opposed to migrants, and that opening up opportunities for international students to stay and work after graduation would improve Britain’s competitive position in international education markets. Scottish educators, meanwhile, are forging ahead with their own internationalisation and recruitment efforts. The University of Edinburgh, for example, has announced plans to increase the proportion of international students in its student body from a reported 41% in 2012/13 to 50% over the long term. Roughly two-thirds of the university’s 9,000+ international students are from outside of the EU at present, and it aims to add by “at least 2,000″ more students from beyond the European Union by 2016.

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USA and Canada Back to top

US records year-on-year overseas student growth

By Matthew Knott :: Study Travel Magazine :: 8th September http://www.hothousemedia.com/stmnews/news/150908-US-records.html

The US has recorded a nine per cent year-on-year growth in July 2015 over the same period in 2014, according to the latest data released by the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP). The total number of international students on F-1 (academic) or M-1 (vocational) visas as of July 2015 was 1,054,505, SEVP said in the Sevis by the Numbers report. The figure represented a 6.9 per cent decrease from the February 2015 total, but was a nine per cent rise compared with the same period in 2014. There was also a 22 per cent increase to 244,766 international student participants in the J-1 visa exchange programme in the last quarter, which covers areas such as summer work travel and short-term secondary school study. China, the largest source country, provided 301,532 students as of July, around 30,000 more than at the same period last year. India was the only major Asian source market to register growth over the first quarter of 2015, with a 2.5 per cent rise to 149,987, and had the highest year-on-year increase at 31.9 per cent. Korea, Saudi Arabia and Canada completed the top five source markets. California was again the largest host state with 178,740 international students, followed by New York (120,161) and Texas (78,354). The three states combined accounted for 36 per cent of the country’s international students in the last quarter. With 11,891 international students, the University of Southern California was the largest host campus. More than 400,000 international students were studying in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects, a rise of 17.7 per cent over July 2014. However, growth in STEM demand could potentially be stymied by a recent court ruling that will curtail the post-study work extension for STEM graduates in February unless replacement legislation is drafted. Although the SEVP report records a period when some international students have completed studies and would therefore be expected to be lower than the previous quarter, there may also be early indications that the strong dollar could be impacting on shorter-term academic and vocational programmes.

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At the recent data presentation by members of the Global Alliance of Education and Language Associations (GAELA), held prior to the StudyTravel Alphe UK Conference last week, Cheryl Delk-Le Good, the recently appointed Executive Director of English USA, said the association was expecting a decrease in students in 2015 due to the unfavourable exchange rate.

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Student and Exchange Visitor Program Quarterly Review

By U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement :: Student and exchange visitor information system :: August 2015 http://www.ice.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Report/2015/sevis_bythenumbers_aug15.pdf General data • There are currently 1.05 million F & M students studying in the United States. • There are currently 244,766 J-1 exchange visitors in the United States. • There are 8,887 U.S. schools certified by SEVP to enroll international students. • Seventy-seven percent of SEVP-certified schools have 50 or less enrolled F & M

students. • Seventy-four percent of all F & M students are enrolled in bachelor’s, master’s or

doctoral programs. • There are 405,314 F & M students studying science, technology, engineering and

mathematics (STEM) fields in the United States.

• Thirty-eight percent of all F & M students in the United States are studying in STEM fields.

• Seventy-five percent of all F & M STEM students are enrolled in engineering, computer and information sciences and support services, or biological and biomedical sciences degree programs.

• Twenty-four percent of all F & M students studying at schools in the state of Texas are from India, followed by 17 percent from China.

See link for full report.

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All Eyes on China

By Elizabeth Redden :: Inside Higher Ed :: 11th September https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/09/11/will-china-slowdown-stall-growth-

international-students Will a slowing Chinese economy lead to a decline in the number of international students in the U.S.? U.S. universities have grown increasingly reliant on rapid, double-percentage-point-per-annum growth in the number of students from China, who now account for 31 percent of international students in American higher education. Many experts expect this growth will continue in the short to medium term, albeit at a more moderated rate, but others suggest that a slowdown in the Chinese economy could, combined with other factors, expedite a flattening in enrollments, or even herald declines. The recent growth in the number of students from China has been particularly rapid at the undergraduate level -- where most Chinese students pay full fees -- but there are already signs of a slowdown at the graduate level, as new enrollments from China at U.S. graduate schools dipped by 1 percent last year. “I think there is a sense in the U.S. that universities have taken the Chinese student enrollment levels for granted, that they’re able to charge significant tuition and somehow this growth will continue into the future unimpeded. I just don’t believe that,” said Todd Maurer, managing partner of a California-based consulting firm, Sinica Advisors, which among other things advises universities on their international strategies. In a June article titled “How the Chinese Student Juggernaut in U.S. Higher Education Will End,” Maurer cited a number of factors, including declines in the size of China’s high school population, increased competition posed by transnational education initiatives like branch campuses and dual and joint degree programs, and the decreased cachet of an American degree as more and more Chinese students obtain one as being some of the reasons for why Chinese undergraduate enrollments in the U.S. may be approaching a peak. Overlaying those longer-term structural factors Maurer identifies are the new economic uncertainties. “There are different elements of the student pool; some will be relatively unaffected and others will be [affected], but I think overall there’s no doubt that a more severe impact on the real economy in China will begin to hurt some of these student outflows,” he said. The variable here is just how deep or prolonged any downturn might be. The massive growth in Chinese student mobility in recent years is largely attributable to the growth of a middle class able to afford foreign higher education, and the premium that families have placed on investing in it. Some point out that families have saved for years for their children’s higher education, and suggest that they are unlikely to be dissuaded by relatively minor changes in economic conditions or currency fluctuations.

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“There is a stability and a sustained interest on the part of middle-class folks, especially new entrants in the middle class, to take the long view in investing in education for their children,” said John Hudzik, a professor at Michigan State University and a former international programs administrator and past president of NAFSA: Association of International Educators and the Association of International Education Administrators. “I don’t see the current economic situation, unless it becomes much more serious than it is now, as having an impact on that commitment.” “A second variable is students are already in the pipeline,” Hudzik continued. “That pipeline stretches much further back than higher education, with English preparatory programs and some kids entering into secondary schools in other countries, including this country.” (A report last year from the Institute of International Education, or IIE, found that the pool of diploma-seeking international students in U.S. high schools is expanding rapidly, with China being the largest sender of high schoolers by far). IIE also tracks international student enrollments at U.S. colleges through its Open Doors survey, which comes out every November. The survey has tracked continuous growth in total international student enrollment in the U.S. for eight straight years, following modest declines after Sept. 11. “It’s really too early and premature for us to know whether the current fluctuations that we have seen are going to have an impact on future international enrollment numbers, including from China,” said Rajika Bhandari, IIE’s deputy vice president for research and evaluation. “If we look at what history has shown us, what we have seen is short-term fluctuations do not have long-term impacts on enrollment. Of course a protracted downturn could have an effect, but it’s too early to know.” She added: "If short-term fluctuations have had an impact it's been a year or so, but it's quickly reversed itself." As an example Bhandari cited declines in Indian student enrollment following a rapid depreciation of India's currency, the rupee. After three years of declines, from 2010 to 2013, Indian enrollments in the U.S. are again on the upswing even though the rupee is still weak. (Students from India are, however, heavily concentrated in graduate programs in the U.S., whereas for China there is a relatively even split between undergraduate and graduate student enrollments.) Rahul Choudaha, the head of research at World Evaluation Services, a credential evaluation organization, said that in any country there are students who struggle to pay for overseas education -- these students, he said, tend to overreact to changes in economic conditions -- and others whose purchasing power largely insulates them from the impacts of macroeconomic shifts. He suggested that demand from students in this latter category remains strong.

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“My assessment of the situation is that the China market in the time span of the next three to five years is a very robust market still from a demand side, which means that the size of the market that has the ability and willingness to pay for their experience is huge,” said Choudaha, who recently penned an op-ed in University World News about why he doesn't think this is "the beginning of the end of the China growth story." In that op-ed he wrote that the growth of Chinese undergraduates in the U.S. has mirrored the growth of China's prosperous class, and cited survey and enrollment data showing that the U.S. is the foreign education destination of choice for Chinese families. Others are less optimistic. “It is likely if this continues for the next two or three major admissions cycles we could start to see some small trends emerging with students making the decision that instead of coming to the U.S. they may go to Australia, because the Australian dollar is weak compared to the U.S. dollar. Or they may decide to look to Canada,” said Fanta Aw, the assistant vice president of campus life for American University and the current president of NAFSA. "I think the U.S. should not be complacent in thinking this will have no impact, because I do think in the long haul it will. The truth of the matter is the economy in China is slowing down,” said Aw, who argues that U.S. universities’ heavy dependence on students from China, as well as from countries with government scholarship programs like Saudi Arabia, “makes us quite vulnerable.” All eyes have been on China given its outsize importance for U.S. universities and their budget and enrollment projections. However, the economic uncertainty surrounding China and drops in global commodities prices as China's growth slows have also been factors contributing to falling currency values in many countries with emerging economies -- places like Brazil, Malaysia, Mexico, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam. The dynamics in all of these countries are different -- Brazil, for example, sends large numbers of students through a government-funded scholarship program -- but all are in the top 25 in terms of countries of origin for international students in the U.S. "The bottom line is that declining local currencies against the U.S. dollar will have an immediate impact on international study in the U.S., particularly since higher tuition and related expenses are usually paid in cash by foreign students rather than financed over the long term," Maurer, of Sinica Advisors, wrote in a blog post. "To be sure, student decisions are not only based on affordability but also programmatic quality, academic reputation, geographic proximity, prospects for future immigration and other intangibles. But for many students and their families, a difference [of] as much as 10 to 15 percent in cost can hit hard on household budget decisions."

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Australia and New Zealand Back to top

Big-spending international students opt for high-cost courses

By Tim Dodd :: Australian Financial Review :: 30th August http://www.afr.com/news/policy/education/bigspending-international-students-opt-for-

highcost-courses-20150828-gj9tue International students tend to choose high-cost courses when they come to Australia, opting for prestige over value for money, according to a new study from the Grattan Institute. The report, called University fees: what students pay in deregulated markets, found that in all subject areas except information technology, international students clustered towards the higher cost degrees. In three areas - agriculture, engineering and science - more than half of international students enrolled in the top quartile of courses (when ordered by cost). "In most disciplines high-fee universities enrol more international students than low-fee universities," said the report by the Grattan Institute's Andrew Norton and Ittima Cherastidtham. It said that Australian students were less willing than international students to pay a premium for institutional prestige. "They and their prospective employers understand that research-driven international university rankings are not a guide to the quality of graduates," the report said. International students are very lucrative for universities because the median international student fee is about 50 per cent higher than the revenue the university receives for an Australian student (which is made up of a Commonwealth subsidy and a student contribution usually paid through HECS). However the fee premium paid by international students varies enormously by subject area. In law, commerce and arts they pay around double what the university receives for a local student. In agriculture, science and engineering, the international student median fee is close to the amount the university would receive for an Australian student. Median fees for international students doing undergraduate degrees vary between $20,000 and $30,000 a year for various discipline areas, with the highest being for agriculture and architecture. For the past several years international students' fees have risen between four and five per cent a year, higher than the CPI. Commerce is by far the most popular course for international students, whether undergraduate or postgraduate.

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There are nearly five times as many undergraduate students enrolled in commerce than the next most popular choice, engineering. At postgraduate level, there are also about five times as many students in commerce as the next most popular choice, information technology.

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The price of prestige: how university status affects fees

By Andrew Norton & Ittima Cherastidtham :: The Conversation :: 30th August https://theconversation.com/the-price-of-prestige-how-university-status-affects-fees-46803

Although removing the cap on undergraduate student fees remains controversial, deregulated fees are not unusual in Australian higher education. A third of public university students already pay market fees. International students make up the majority. The rest, around 140,000 domestic students, take mostly postgraduate coursework degrees. Deregulated markets provide some insight into both how universities behave when allowed to set their own fees, and how students react to those fees. These are explored in our new Grattan Institute report, University fees: what students pay in deregulated markets. The international student market In the international student market universities aim to make money, and the main price constraint is what students in a global market will pay. The fees Australian universities charge international students are comparable to competitor universities in countries such as the United Kingdom. In each country, we observe a wide range of fees for the same or similar courses. In Australia, it is not unusual for the most expensive university to charge double or more the fee of the cheapest university offering the same course. This does not deter international students. Despite the cost, in most disciplines expensive courses attract more students than cheap courses. There are clear university patterns to international student fees charged: on average, the Group of Eight universities have the highest fees, followed by technology universities, the Innovative Research Universities which were typically founded in the 1960s and 1970s, and the Regional Universities Network members, which usually date from the 1990s. University prestige is the main reason why some universities can charge much higher fees than others. Especially with the rise of research-driven university rankings, research has become an important university status marker. All Group of Eight members are in the global top 200 research universities, while no other Australian university has yet reached this status. Other status markers are high entry requirements, and perhaps high cost in itself. Students pay for prestige partly as an investment. It gets them into a university that potential employers have heard of and believe is of high quality. University prestige is a proxy indicator suggesting that graduates have attributes and skills employers are looking for. Graduates hope that this will help them get a good job.

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In many disciplines, high prestige lets the Group of Eight universities charge international students thousands of dollars a year more than the technology universities. The cost difference with other universities is even larger. In the domestic postgraduate market, however, prestige has less financial value. Domestic students never pay more than international students for the same course, and usually they pay significantly less. In commerce courses, the most popular for international students, they typically pay about 20% more than domestic students. In arts courses, the difference is more than 40%. This is despite domestic students having access to the HELP loan scheme, while international students must pay their fees upfront. While on average the Group of Eight universities charge domestic postgraduates more than the technology universities charge, the fee differences are small compared to the prestige premium paid by international students. One reason that domestic postgraduate students pay less for prestige than international students is that they don’t need to. While for visa reasons few international postgraduate students work in relevant jobs, many domestic postgraduates work full-time while studying. Employers can observe directly whether their staff have added skills as a result of their course. This is real information about what they looking for, not a proxy indicator. Domestic student market In the domestic market, prestige could be more significant for undergraduates than postgraduates. Like international students, most domestic undergraduates lack jobs relevant to their intended careers. They need other ways of signalling their skills and attributes to potential employers, such as attending universities with strong brands. Domestic undergraduates may also be less price sensitive than postgraduates. For school leaver undergraduates HELP repayments are many years away, reducing their price sensitivity. Domestic postgraduates with jobs could start paying for their degrees before they graduate, focusing their minds on value for money. Although prestige is likely to count more for domestic undergraduates than postgraduates, it will be less important than it is for international students. Universities without high international research rankings have good local reputations, based on the experience of students and employers. International students and their prospective employers do not have easy access to this information. Many domestic undergraduate students with the marks to attend a Group of Eight university go elsewhere, confirming that prestige is not always decisive in student choice.

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Research suggests that this local knowledge is as reliable as prestige in choosing a university. Student satisfaction with teaching is similar in low and high research departments. Graduates from different types of university have similar rates of employment, and only small income differences. As undergraduate fee deregulation is unlikely to pass the Senate, the exact price of prestige will remain unknown. Our experience in existing deregulated markets suggests that it would be substantially less than what international students pay, but more than what domestic undergraduate students pay now.

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Australian Immigration Cancels Over Ten Thousand International Student Visas

By Study international Staff :: Study International :: 2nd September http://www.studyinternational.com/news/australian-immigration-cancels-over-ten-thousand-

international-student-visas Authorities of Australian immigration have revoked close to 11,000 visas of ‘non-genuine’ students, an increase of nearly a third on the figure from last year. Between the start of July 2014 and the end of June 2015, The Department of Immigration and Border Protection ceased a total of 10,949 student visas, compared with last year’s figure of 8018 and 8930 for the year ending June 2009; that’s a 30 percent increase in the number of cancellations. The revocations fall at a pivotal moment in the Australian government’s streamlined visa-processing framework, designed so that international students applying to study in Australia ‘encounter a simpler student visa regulatory environment than currently exists in the country, and more Australian educators will enjoy the benefits of a streamlined visa system.’ The changes come as a result of a recent report titled Future directions for streamlined visa processing, which led to the Australian government developing a simplified student visa framework, due to come into play June 2016 when the current framework expires. The most significant changes to the framework are; the reduction in the number of student visa subclasses from the current eight to two, and the introduction of a single immigration risk framework under which all international students will be assessed, regardless of programme of study. According to the Australian government, the new changes are, “…designed to make the student visa framework simpler to navigate for genuine students, deliver a more targeted approach to immigration integrity, and create a level playing field for all education providers.” Figures for the recent visa cancellations released by HES show that Chinese student cohorts were hit hardest, with 1793 visas aborted within the past year. Over 1160 South Korean students have had their visas revoked, followed by a significant number from India, Vietnam and Thailand. The total number of issued student visas grew by two percent, from 292,060 to 299,540. Chief Executive of the International Education Association of Australia, Phil Honeywood, claimed that faults in the current system allowed inferior education institutions to exploit the visa streamlining scheme.

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Honeywood said: “A key reason for ditching the current streamlined visa procedures is that too many low-quality education providers have been gaming the system, and this has meant students have been attracted to enrolling in such providers as an easy visa pathway to Australia.” Earlier this year, The Australian reported a ‘surge’ in the number of ‘non-genuine’ international students counterfeiting English test results and financial documents in order to gain entry to Australian universities, trebling the number of visa cancellations over the course of two years. The Department of Immigration and Border Protection also claimed to have identified 1000 ‘course hopping’ overseas students who arrived on streamlined visas before transferring to unaccredited institutions. The latest example of an Australian institution mistreating immigration rules came in July, when authorities stormed the offices of a Melbourne education provider after they were accused of falsely enrolling international students, forging fraudulent paperwork and failing to provide adequate education. It was reported that the students did not attend school, but rather worked as labourers for a company owned by the fraudsters, all the while continuing to pay hefty tuition fees in order to uphold their student status and maintain their visas. Honeywood states: “Fortunately, the Immigration Department has been able to monitor many of these and has been prepared to cancel visas for non-genuine students. “However, any quality student destination country should be on top of these non-genuine student cases at the application stage rather than after a visa has been issued. “Because of effective consultation with the sector, we are hopeful that the new SSVF (streamlined student visa framework) will significantly improve both the quality of providers and the checks and balances on genuine student approvals.” Christopher Pine, Education Minister for Australia, seeks to shut down illegitimate third-party agencies who recruit international students, incorporating a ‘code of ethics’ and ‘feasibility study’ to an agency framework that is both quality and industry led. Pyne says: “The quality of the educational services that Australia offers to the rest of the world is an asset that we should protect and enhance. “International education is Australia’s fourth largest export industry overall and our largest services export ahead of tourism, so maintaining our strong reputation for quality is important.” But with 11,000 students already raging due to the cancellations and many more headed for devastation as the SSVF comes properly into place, how does Australia plan to uphold its reputation as a haven for studying abroad?

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New code of ethics for international education agents in Australia

By Susmita Pathak Mishra :: International Business Times :: 31st August http://www.ibtimes.com.au/new-code-ethics-international-education-agents-australia-

1463458 Education and Training Minister Christopher Pyne announced a new code of ethics for international education agents at the Australian Council for Private Education and Training’s Asia Pacific International Education Forum and National Conference held in Melbourne on Friday. The new set of code of ethics will focus on ensuring enhancement of the quality and image of global education sector of Australia. Pyne stated that the quality of education offered by the country is incredible and hence it is important to protect and develop it. “International education is Australia’s fourth largest export industry overall and our largest services export ahead of tourism, so maintaining our strong reputation for quality is important,” Pyne said in a statement. “We are therefore working with the International Education Association of Australia to develop an industry-led quality assurance framework to help institutions manage their international education agents,” he said. Pyne claimed that the government provided adequate fund to develop the code of ethics and thereby aid to conduct studies and formulate industry-oriented framework for agents. The education strategy will form a vital part of the National Strategy for International Education to secure the reputation of best quality global learning platform that Australia offers. “These initiatives also reflect our support for the London Statement, a statement of principles that was agreed to by Australia, the United Kingdom, Ireland and New Zealand in 2012 and outlines best practice for education agents.” According to Pyne, this will prompt a more competitive education system in Australia and offer best student experiences. The education minister said that he is ready to work with education agents and endorse London Statement later in 2015. On Friday, Pyne visited Victoria University for a speech where about 10 students from the National Union of Students protested the federal education minister's proposals for education. They were apparently kicked out of the building where he held his speech.

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China crisis: what does it mean for student recruitment? By David Matthews :: Times Higher Education :: 28th August

https://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/china-crisis-what-does-it-mean-student-recruitment

Imagine the scenario: an increasingly prosperous Asian country, which sends more students than any other nation to UK universities, is suddenly hit by a stock market collapse, a currency devaluation and a deep recession. Students are unable to afford foreign study, leaving academic departments across the UK with a financial black hole. This is not a fearful projection of what may happen in China after the recent chaos on the stock markets and the surprise devaluation of the yuan in early August. It really happened: the year was 1997, but the country was Malaysia. In that year, the Asian financial crisis wiped almost half the value off the Malaysian ringgit, and the country entered a deep recession. The consequences for UK universities were grave. In 1996-97, more than 18,000 students came from Malaysia, making it by far the biggest exporter of international students to the UK. Yet by 1999-2000, this had collapsed to barely over 10,000 students. Numbers have still not recovered to their pre-financial crisis levels. “The sudden reduction we all felt in students from Southeast Asia caused real turbulence in the sector,” recalled Vincenzo Raimo, pro vice-chancellor (global engagement) at the University of Reading. But he warned: “We’re in a much more dangerous position today.” Over the past decade, financial reliance on international students, and specifically those from China, has ballooned. In 2013-14, tuition fee income from students from outside the European Union was almost £4 billion, more than £1 in £8. Of this, Chinese students accounted for about £1.1 billion (assuming that their fees were similar to those paid by other international students). Worryingly for universities, the boom in Chinese students could simply rest on an unusually good exchange rate, at least in part. From 2003 to 2008, the number of Chinese students was roughly flat. They began arriving in increasing numbers only after the pound lost about a third of its value in 2008, making study in the UK a much more affordable option for Chinese families.

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It is unclear exactly where the value of the yuan will end up. But the modest devaluation in mid-August was seen by some as the start of a longer trend towards pre-2008 exchange rates designed to boost exports and revive China’s slowing economy. Recently Bloomberg reported that Chinese economic agencies are already assuming a devaluation of 20 per cent against the dollar by the end of 2016.

‘Peak may be just around the corner’ In addition to currency dangers, a weakening economy, fewer youngsters and better domestic universities imperil this key source of students. “These issues mean that the peak of China’s outbound study trend may be just around the corner,” suggests Matt Durnin, head of research in China for the British Council.

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“Regardless of how China’s economic growth fluctuates over the next few years, we don’t expect that the outbound study surge of the past decade will continue much longer,” he said. Even if all Chinese students deserted the UK overnight, universities would lose only 3 to 4 per cent of their income. Yet this overall figure disguises the concentration of Chinese students on certain courses, which could become especially vulnerable if numbers drop. A report released in February by the Higher Education Funding Council for England warned of an “over-reliance” on Chinese students at postgraduate level. On full-time taught master’s courses in England, they make up a quarter of those enrolled – almost as many as British students. “The problem with the rapid growth in China’s outbound student mobility over the past decade is that it has made many universities complacent about recruitment,” argued Mr Durnin. A mix of knowledge and naivety US universities are likely to be less vulnerable than their UK counterparts to any Chinese slowdown because proportionally they recruit far fewer foreign students. International students represent just 4 per cent of the total higher education population. And due to their tuition fee system, Chinese students are usually no more financially lucrative than out-of-state American students. Australia is a different matter. Almost 8 per cent of students there are Chinese, more than double the figure in the UK. Exposure to international markets has also changed what it takes to run a university. About half of UK institutions now have an international pro-vice chancellor, estimated Neil Kemp, a consultant on international education. Although there is still some “naivety” in universities about international recruitment – including wildly high targets set by vice-chancellors – Dr Kemp said that senior managers’ knowledge of global economic trends is now “excellent”, and far better than it was a decade ago, something that may help as the UK navigates any coming recruitment storms triggered by the China crisis.

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International Back to top

First global conference on HE internationalisation

By Karen MacGregor :: University World News :: 29th August http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20150829095409753

The first Global Conference on Internationalisation of Higher Education will be held in August next year, in South Africa’s huge Kruger Park game reserve. The event flows from the first inclusive Global Dialogue held in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, in January 2014, attended by 24 international education organisations from across the world. “We want to create a commons where there’s nobody dominating,” said Professor Nico Jooste, president of the International Education Association of South Africa, making the announcement at the IEASA annual conference held in Port Elizabeth from 19-21 August. “It will be a major event, academically global in scope.” The Global Conference on Internationalisation of Higher Education will take place from 22-24 August 2016 in conference facilities at Skukuza camp in Kruger Park. There are beds for 450 delegates. “The call for papers will go out soon. You can book the date,” said Jooste, who is also senior director of international education at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth. “We are expecting high demand for places.” The roar of lions and cackling hyenas are bound to dramatise presentations, and since game drives take place just before sunrise or in the late afternoon or evening, participants will be able to combine business with safari. Backdrop The 24 international education bodies that attended the Global Dialogue last year – including from America, Europe, Mexico, Japan, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America – produced a declaration that stressed mutual benefit and a more ethical global higher education agenda. There had been earlier Global Dialogues of international education groups, on the sidelines of conferences, but they mainly involved North American and European organisations. Last year in South Africa was the first time a globally inclusive dialogue was held, and participants debated how higher education internationalisation might be made more globally equitable, value-driven and collaborative and how practitioners might go about shaping its future agenda and harmonising their efforts.

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The resulting Nelson Mandela Bay Global Dialogue Declaration agreed that a future agenda for internationalisation should focus on enhancing quality and diversity in mobility programmes, internationalisation of the curriculum and gaining global commitment to equal partnerships. The global conference “One of the outcomes of the Global Dialogue was a discussion – not a firm decision – about a global conference that would happen every four years and should be hosted by one of the associations that are not normally in the ‘middle’ of the world,” said Jooste. Some participants felt they did not have a mandate to back the global international education conference idea. Some pointed out that their annual conferences were global in terms of participation, and were concerned about a global event taking away from theirs. And so the idea was not included in the declaration’s priority actions. “There was some silence about it,” Jooste admitted. But Global Dialogue statements began popping up on the websites of international education associations. “We started to prod our colleagues and suggested that IEASA might forego its annual conference and instead provide organisation for a global conference.” At a meeting held during this month’s IEASA conference in Port Elizabeth – which was attended by some 160 people including representatives of numerous international education groups from around the world – there was “100% buy-in”. Ideas from the IEASA conference At the end of the IEASA conference Professor Hans de Wit, the new director of the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College in America, outlined striking aspects of the discussions that should be taken forward – including, presumably, at the global conference. The first was the issue of research in internationalisation. “When we talk about the internationalisation of higher education, we are inclined to forget about research and only talk about the educational side, about the mobility of students and staff, joint partnerships etc.” People working in international education hid away from the research question, De Wit said, because the professionals were not really much involved in research and the academics saw research as their territory. “But that’s increasingly not the case. Research as presented here is more and more a kind of joint partnership. You can no longer do research on your own, you have to work together.” With research becoming more complex and costly, it had to be done in multinational teams.

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“A stronger relationship between research and education in the international field is important. It was a good idea to learn here from researchers about how they work on research cooperation in the international arena and about their issues and concerns. I think this will be increasingly important in our work.” A second innovative idea was a World Café on global engagement with internationalisation of teaching and research. Not the fact that it was a ‘world café’, said De Wit, but the concept of having tables where South Africans could talk with a Brazilian or Russian or Mexican and discuss their perceptions of internationalisation, and similarities and differences. “Because internationalisation is not one word that fits all. Context is so crucial. The context of being in Mexico or in South Africa or in Russia defines the way that internationalisation goes.” By understanding and communicating with each other, there was lively debate and exploration of commonalities and differences and how to overcome difference. The third innovation, De Wit said, was both shocking and fascinating – a debate about xenophobia and tribalism and the issues faced in South Africa: “How to deal not only with foreigners but also local differences and how that affects daily lives and also the work in internationalisation. “We have to be aware that the local and the global are not different; that international is also intercultural, and intercultural is also in our countries.” Such issues as internal problems and internal diversity should not be shied away from. “We have an important role to play in our internationalisation at home. How to deal with the global and local and regional.” How to deal with diversity within South Africa, within Africa and in the global context, for instance. “There is no contradiction between those levels; you have to address them at the same time because they all are related,” De Wit argued. It was important to hear about how South Africa was dealing with diversity and tribalism – “issues you don’t hear much about” – and how it affects working in internationalisation. America and Europe were also dealing with diversity issues, and people could learn from each other that this is not just a South African or a Dutch or an American problem – “we still have to deal with racial tensions and tribal conflict etc all over the world and that is also part of the internationalisation of higher education”. Finally, said De Wit, a panel and session on the BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – was important as a clear example of cooperation that did not involve the traditional powers dealt with before, such as North America, Europe, Australia and Japan. “How can we collaborate with Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa? That’s very difficult. But if you don’t try to do something it will never happen.

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“With all the challenges and risks that are involved, and correctly addressing issues such as human rights and the ethics of collaboration, I still think that it’s very important that efforts are made to have this kind of cooperation taking place without the traditional powers being involved,” De Wit said, concluding: “Those four struck me as new and innovative ways of bringing the whole discussion forward about how we collaborate together internationally on making our higher education systems more connected and more engaged with all students and staff at our universities.”

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MOOCs inspire a new style of cheating, research reveals

By Natalie Marsh :: The Pie News :: 9th September http://thepienews.com/news/moocs-inspire-a-new-style-of-cheating-research-reveals/

MOOC classes are an all together unique learning experience so it’s no surprise that they also inspire new ways of cheating. Researchers at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology have discovered a new method of cheating, facilitated by the online learning environment, that could ultimately threaten the credibility of MOOC completion certificates. In a report entitled “Detecting and Preventing “Multiple-Account” Cheating in Massive Open Online Courses”, researchers look at one specific method of cheating through online learning – “copying answers using multiple existences online”, also known as CAMEO. Speaking with The PIE News, report co-author Isaac Chuang, said “as educators we expect cheating to be going on in our classrooms”. However, he said this is the kind of cheating that you never have in the normal classroom. “It involves a student copying from herself, almost as if the left hand is copying from the right hand– the left hand clicks some answer, logged in with a fictitious username and the right hand copies that answer and enters it into their real username and account. You can’t do that if you’re a student enrolled in a classroom.” The study looked at almost 1.9 million participants of 115 MOOCs between autumn 2012 and spring 2015, on the MITx and HarvardX MOOC platform, edX. The report found that an estimated 1,237 certificates were earned through the CAMEO method – a total of 1.3%. The report warns that as a result of users creating what it describes as “harvester” accounts to find the correct answers, it “threatens perceptions of the value of MOOC certification”. “If learners in some online courses are circumventing the learning process and obtaining certification without going through the traditional routes of assessment and feedback, then the certificate does not necessarily imply that they learned anything,” Chuang told MIT News. The report found that the curricular field of government, health and social science recorded the highest percentage of CAMEO users at 1.3%. Computer science ranked the lowest with only an estimated 0.1% of CAMEO users. In some courses, CAMEO users accounted for 5% of all certificates earned. Chuang reasoned the higher prevalence of cheating in specific fields is partly because of the type of information students are learning.

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“One way of preventing cheating is randomising the questions- giving the same questions but with slightly different numerical perimeters,” he explained. “But it doesn’t often work with humanities courses because Plato only had one reason for the existence of the world and you can’t quite randomise that question.” This type of cheating was also found to have geographical sensitivities. Albania had the highest CAMEO count per certificate at an estimated 12%. Indonesia and Serbia followed with 4% and 3%, respectively, with both China and Colombia accounting for 2% each. The US only saw a CAMEO rate of 0.4% of certificates earned by users. “Maybe one of the reasons is because these MOOC certificates might be seen as having higher value by learners outside of the United States where they haven’t had access to this kind of content,” hypthoesised Chuang. “In the United States there are many outlets where you can find this kind of learning and this kind of material.” The report also puts forth methods to combat CAMEO cheating, suggesting that instructors provide different questions to each student or that they withhold the “show answer” option, which is available to view after submitting an answer. Courses that have adopted this restriction and others, including participants receiving a random question with varying solutions, have seen a lower CAMEO rate – 0.1%. Those which have not adopted these methods, meanwhile, account for 1.2% of the CAMEO rate. However, Chuang identified a concern that methods to prevent cheating could encroach on the auto-didactic mission of MOOCs. “Right now there is a current practice in these massive open online courses to provide answers right away because if you’re learning something you learn by finding out that you’re wrong and you learn by finding out what the explanation of a solution is,” he commented. “But if they withhold that solution it certainly does put a wrench in this kind of cheating scheme.”

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Four trends that are shaping the future of global student mobility

By ICEF Monitor Staff :: ICEF Monitor :: 2nd Spetember http://monitor.icef.com/2015/09/four-trends-that-are-shaping-the-future-of-global-student-

mobility/ Every now and then, we find it helpful to step back from the steady tide of market reports and information and think about some of the larger trends that are influencing international student mobility. Here are four that are likely to have a profound impact on global education markets for the next decade and more. 1. Growth will continue, but at what rate? The estimates have it that there are about five million students studying outside of their home countries today. This represents an increase of nearly 67% from the three million students that did so in 2005, with average annual growth of 7% per year between 2000 and 2012. The OECD projects that the world’s population of international students will reach eight million by 2025. This represents a slightly cooler, but still very impressive, projected growth rate of 60% in overall global mobility over the next decade. The big question is what happens after that. It is fair to say that domestic higher education capacity has been an important driver of growth in recent decades. Simply put: in countries that lack higher education capacity – whether in terms of available seats or reliable quality of education – students look for opportunities to study abroad. But that domestic capacity question is shifting in many key markets, and will continue to do so. “Up to 2002, more students were enrolled in higher education in North America and Western Europe than in any other world region. But since 2003, there have been more students pursuing higher education in East Asia and the Pacific,” wrote RMIT University analyst Angel Calderon in a 2012 article for University World News. “The East Asia and the Pacific region is expected to exceed enrolments of 100 million students between 2020 and 2021 and to exceed enrolments of 200 million between 2033 and 2034.” More recently, Mr Calderon noted in a pre-conference briefing for EAIE 2015 in Glasgow, “Higher education participation rates will continue to rise…meaning that demand for previously unmet domestic higher education will be met for countries such as China, India, Brazil and Indonesia.” More to the point, he notes that major sending markets, such as China and India, still have an unmet demand for tertiary education that amounts to about 30 million young people each. But “once that capacity is met, somewhere around 2025, international student mobility may reach a game-changing moment.”

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While there are many factors that act on global demand for study abroad, the implications of this demand-supply shift are potentially profound. The changing undergraduate-graduate composition of Chinese enrolment in the US can be seen as an early indicator of how such shifts can directly influence patterns of student mobility. Needless to say, the prospect of slower growth over the long term, particularly from today’s key source markets, carries with it some important strategic implications for international educators going forward. 2. Leading destinations losing share The US remains the world’s leading study destination, and, together with the UK, Germany, France, and Australia, hosts about half of the world’s mobile tertiary students. Many of these leading destinations, however, are losing market share in recent years. The US share of internationally mobile students dropped from 23% in 2000 to 16% in 2012, even as the absolute number of foreign students in America continues to climb. The UK, where enrolment has flattened in recent years in the face of more restrictive visa policies, has lost ground as well. This shift is largely a function of increasing competition among destinations. Both Canada and Australia have gained a greater share of international students over the last decade. But other countries have also gained ground. The OECD reports that outside of these leading destinations, “significant numbers of foreign students were enrolled in the Russian Federation (4% market share in 2012), Japan (3%), Austria (2%), Italy (2%), New Zealand (2%), and Spain (2%).” Add to this the growing impact of emerging regional hubs for education – more on which below – and it is fair to say that the stage is set for a new level of competition among leading study destinations over the next decade and more. 3. Middle class driving growth The growth of the middle class in emerging economies around the world is another key factor in overall demand levels for study abroad. As Dr Simon Marginson wrote earlier this year, “The number of middle class people in Asia is expected to rise from 600 million in 2010 to more than three billion in 2030 [and] middle class families want tertiary education for their children.” A recent World Education News and Reviews (WENR) analysis expands on this point by highlighting that growth in outbound mobility since 2000 has been heavily influenced by the expansion of the middle class: “Upper-middle-income economies…are the ones driving growth in outbound student mobility. The total number of outbound international students from upper-middle-income economies jumped 161% between 2000 and 2012, as compared to only 29% from high-income OECD countries.”

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Outbound mobility growth by World Bank national income classification. Source: World

Education News and Reviews Indeed, some of the most significant emerging markets for international education today, including India, Nigeria, and Indonesia, are characterised by large and growing middle-class populations. 4. Regional student mobility The Education at a Glance 2014 report makes the point that: “Global student mobility follows inter-and intra-regional migration patterns to a great extent. The growth in the internationalisation of tertiary enrolment in OECD countries, as well as the high proportion of intra-regional student mobility show the growing importance of regional mobility over global mobility.” We have been tracking the increasing role of intra-regional mobility in recent years. For example, the pattern is clearly visible in UNESCO statistics that indicate the percentage of Latin American students remaining within the region increased from 11% in 1999 to 23% in 2007. Similarly, the percentage of mobile East Asian students studying within the region rose from 36% to 42% over the same period. This trend is further supported through a growing number of regional mobility schemes around the world, such as those among the ASEAN countries and of course the landmark Erasmus programme in Europe. But also of note here are an increasing number of bilateral mobility arrangements, including Mexico’s Proyecta 100,000 initiative and the corresponding 100,000 Strong in the Americas programme for US students.

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Finally, intra-regional mobility is also supported and extended via a series of regional hubs: emerging study destinations that are explicitly expanding capacity but also actively recruiting abroad, and especially so within their respective regions. The emerging patterns of increasing regional mobility that result from all of these factors are an important trend in international education today and, we expect, will be a key determinant of the competitive landscape of tomorrow.

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