international education
What UK education can learn from us
International education faces one key problem: The voting public, politicians, and civil servants do not understand who we are, or where we fit in. By Phil Honeywood
Despite a lack of understanding of the major issues the industry faces, a comparison of where Australia and the United Kingdom currently sit in the evolution of international education from being a sector to being both a sector and an industry throws up some interesting issues.
There is clearly a desire by many UK institutions to emulate Australia’ s success in attracting significant tuition fee revenue, gaining international diversity within their student cohort and enhancing student mobility and research collaboration. However, domestic political considerations have compromised this ambition. The following factors are very much in play:
• The UK government has, for some years, officially counted full fee paying international students within its annual migration numbers. By contrast, Australia separately reports numbers of student visas issued to those of its migrant and refugee numbers. Because of the high unemployment levels in the UK, and an influx of young unemployed from European Community countries hoping to study or work in Great Britain, community perceptions are now working against non-EU full fee paying international students. There is a view that students from traditional source countries such as India, Pakistan and the African nations will overstay their student visas and, in effect, become illegal migrants.
• The recent success of the United Kingdom Independence Party( UKIP), in national polling and local government elections, has both the Conservative and Labour parties concerned that the next national elections will be fought largely on migration issues. Any attempt to disentangle the benefits of full fee paying international students from this potent political mix is fraught with potential adverse reactions. Regional-based UK institutions, such as the University of Warwick, have published excellent detailed reports on the socio-economic benefits of non-EU international students to their regional city communities. However, these messages seem to get lost within the noise of the national migration debate.
Unfortunately, there appears to be no unity of purpose within the United Kingdom’ s international education fraternity to work together to overcome these challenges. The various separate polytechnic, independent schools, private post-secondary colleges, English language and university peak industry associations apparently do not hold joint meetings to agree on overarching strategies. Many universities have been attracted to joining disparate regional-based groupings and the once highly respected British Council seems to be suffering from a perception that it is all about extracting fee for service from UK education institutions.
Addressing the problem No magic bullet will fix the UK’ s problems. However, three key initiatives that have been implemented within Australia’ s international education industry could go some way to addressing the UK situation:
1: Visa consultation committee The Education Visa Consultative Committee( EVCC) has become a forum for the Australian government to engage with key stakeholders, and peak industry associations, on policy matters regarding student visas.
Initially, there were many territorial issues defended around this table and an unwillingness to share important information. However, as the same representatives have come to know each other over a two year period, barriers have gradually broken down and full and frank discussions now take place.
At some Australian embassies abroad, it was discovered that the rate of student visa rejections by locally engaged staff was inordinately high. By bringing this to the attention of the committee, agreement was reached that there should be a review
12 | May 2013