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Santuza Bicalho – Senior Vice President, Global Sales, Embassy English (Worldwide)”

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26 27| THE PIE REVIEW | ISSUE 05 ISSUE 05 | THE PIE REVIEW |

UK resilience

FURTHER IMMIGRATION clampdowns, exam fraud uncovered onshore and a new 10% visa refusal threshold were three major incidences that impacted the UK’s international education landscape this year.

All three were seismic events for some companies and institutions, especially those on the wrong side of the im-migration clampdown, which saw 57 colleges and three uni-versities have their licences suspended or activities curtailed while the government investigated possible irregularities since the exam scandal.

The Home Office was on tenterhooks after systemic chea-ting at two onshore TOEIC testing centres was exposed by a BBC documentary, with native speakers sitting in for actual test takers or answers given during the exam.

Studio Cambridge was one such school to be caught up in the pendulum of power that was swinging towards a “sus-pend first, investigate further” course of action as the Home

Office made good on its absolute intent to powerhose the sector of fraudulent activity.

ETS did not renew its licence as a Secure English Langu-age Test (SELT) for TOIEC and sister exam TOEFL (both exams shared a joint licence) amid concerns that up to 45,000 students may have gained fraudulent test results.

Malcolm Mottram, Managing Director at Studio Cam-bridge, whose licence has since been reinstated, tells The PIE that he believes it was included in the suspensions because it offers some parts of the TOEIC as a testing centre.

“We are, of course, pleased to be exonerated. However, we are disappointed that UKVI publically suspended our licence, causing us considerable reputational damage, without any al-legation being made or evidence offered,” he says.

Many other colleges were still wrangling over their sus-pensions at the time of going to press. Meanwhile three universities also had their ability to recruit internationally curtailed or stopped. But in the case of University of Bed-

fordshire, it was a temporary cessation of recruitment which resumed following a UKVI investigation.

“I was always confident that our procedures for monito-ring international students were robust, and I’m pleased that UKVI’s thorough and detailed audit has confirmed this,” says Bill Rammell, the university’s Vice-Chancellor.

THE NEWS SENT shockwaves through what is a highly re-gulated sector and raised questions about the oversight of the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA). It also pitted the powers of government intervention – which it revealed can be determi-ned and consistent – against any would-be bogus operators and, unfortunately, other institutions caught up in the fallout.

QAA launched its own investigation into 14 London sub-campuses of universities which were flagged up as a concern by UKVI (and in some cases run by a private ope-rator in their name). But Stephen Jackson, QAA’s Director of Quality Assurance, points out that the agency is not “the Home Office police”.

“How can you guard against criminal behaviour through a peer review process – our methods are just not geared to dealing with those issues,” he says. “Our process is based on trust; we recruit our reviewers from institutions.”

Currently there are few barriers to entry in the UK’s private provider sector; a major problem, according to Jackson. “Anyone can set up a college... and through that, get access to

funding sources like student loan support,” he observes.And without the authority of statutory powers, Jackson

sees QAA’s role falling short when it comes to monitoring the private sector. “Our authority, such as it is, comes from our member institutions,” he says. “One way in which we could extend our effectiveness would be to be given statu-tory powers to inspect colleges.”

ON THE HEELS of this government squeeze, a new, more restrictive reading of the visa refusal rule that governs all Highly Trusted Sponsors (HTS) was announced in July, to be implemented by November, giving institutions some time to adjust their processes, if required. Should an institution have more than 10 per cent of visa applications refused for its would-be international student enrolees, it risks losing its HTS licence and therefore its ability to recruit further students.

The previous threshold was 20 per cent, and the ruling is a concern for many, including English language schools that maintain HTS status but in reality accept a minority of

Students studying in Bristol (far left) and in central London on campus at Regent’s University, London (above left and right)

It’s been a turbulent year so far for the UK’s international education sector but despite some concern about the new ”10 per cent” rule, institutions actually have enough to be

optimistic about, as Amy Baker discovers.

PHOTO: ELC BRISTOL / ROGER HARRIS

22 23| THE PIE REVIEW | ISSUE 05 ISSUE 05 | THE PIE REVIEW |

The future is Brisbane:

“THERE’S OPPORTUNITIES AS an international student in Brisbane that I didn’t have when I was studying in Kenya,” enthuses Raisa Ochola from Kenya. “I’ve just discovered that Brisbane offers opportunities where I can model, because I do that as a hobby, so Brisbane offers you so many things so you can build yourself as a person, apart from university.”

Ochola, who is studying a Bachelor of IT & corporate management systems at one of Brisbane’s flagship institu-tions, QUT, is a model student (in more ways than one) for the Australian city of Brisbane.

WITH 75,000 INTERNATIONAL student enrolments a year, and all eyes on the city for the G20 Summit later this year, Brisbane is keen to explain its virtues and vision to be a long-term holistic education destination offering much more than just education.

Benefiting from the generous part-time work rights that all students enjoy in Australia, Ochola – an International Stu-dent Ambassador for the city – is a great testament to that. She also works part-time at a fundraising company called Public Outreach and feels completely engaged with the city, and by default, Australia.

“In Brisbane, I think as long as you have that go-getter mentality and determination, you will find a part-time job,” she says. “It gives you the connections that you can use for your whole life.” Queensland’s star city has a well-developed international education strategy – including savvy use of students such as Ochola as ambassadors who leverage their own social media channels for Brisbane’s benefit. It has a longer-sighted ap-proach that seeks to develop lifelong personal, professional and cultural relationships with its international students.

“It’s no longer about the duration of the course and the course fee, it’s actually about what does the student offer so-

cially, culturally and most importantly economically as well,” explains CEO of Brisbane Marketing, John Aitken, when I meet him in his city centre office.

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS GENERATED AUS$3.77 billion for Brisbane’s economy in 2012, broken down into AUS$1.4 billion in annual course fee revenue and AUS$2.3 billion in value-added economic activity such as visiting friends and relatives, accommodation, and other additional spending.

The city has been a trailblazer in organising Student Friendship Ceremonies, whereby international students have the opportunity to meet the Lord Mayor and network with a number of potential employers.

“Getting those international students to be entrepreneurs and to work with their channels in terms of the investment flow that can go into those enterprises is probably the gro-wing conversation with Brisbane,” reveals Aitken. Brisbane’s Lord Mayor Cllr Graham Quirk and Aitken have been trying to step up the conversation about “capture of talent” and “di-versification of our workforce,” and have already observed a follow-through of investment in a number of key industry sectors because of the inbound international student flow.

“International students add so much to Brisbane; creating a cosmopolitan and vibrant city which makes it all the more inviting for other students as well as tourists, business inves-tors and delegates to events like the G20 Leaders Summit,” notes Quirk.

Aitken adds, “Brisbane is openly and actively, through the Lord Mayor and the city, offering a point of contact. Once you’ve got your foot in the door as it were, then its up to the student [to market] their abilities and expertise, language skills and value that they can bring to the business that seeks to employ them.”

The property sector has benefited particularly well from international students as parents and families of interna-

Student Friendship Ceremonies, employer engagement, world-class digital interactive learning environments and Asian-oriented business links. Brisbane

has all this and is now the host of the G20 Leaders Summit. As the eyes of the world focus on it, Brisbane is keen to extoll the virtues of a city that works hard to offer far more than just a study experience. Katie Duncan reports on

Brisbane’s bold ambitions.how one city is engaging

internationally

THE FUTURE IS BRISBANE

32 33| THE PIE REVIEW | ISSUE 05 ISSUE 05 | THE PIE REVIEW |

ELDERLY PEOPLE EATING chocolate and sweets is not common in South Korea,” Suno Lee, Director of PeopleLoving Education, a Seoul-based educational consultancy firm tells The PIE.

Lee, who set up his agency almost nine years ago, belie-ves that the Internet has made his students more aware of cultural differences over the years, but they are still con-sistently surprised by certain elements of accommoda-tion etiquette and classroom dynamics, and of course the occasional bemusing sight in the street, such as elderly people munching on Maltesers.

“Teachers in places like the UK can seem on your level, almost like a friend, but at the end of the day they are still the teacher,” he considers. “And having to let your homestay family know you will miss a meal the day before is very hard for a Korean student to understand.”

FULYA YALEZAN YILMAZ, Founder of test centre and agency Tec Istanbul tells me pets, wearing shoes in the house and putting vinegar on chips are just some aspects of life in the UK that she doesn’t think Turkish students will ever get used to.

“If it’s their first time travelling internationally they find it quite a shock to find cats sitting on table tops and dogs lying on the sofa,” she recounts. “One student told me his host family had put the cat’s bowl in the dishwasher and washed

CulturalCollision

Culture shock can strike international students the world over at any time, leaving them feeling isolated and displaced, and sometimes even causing them to return

home. More often, however, cultural transition is an intriguing part of the study abro-ad experience, enabling students to learn more about their own and other countries’ idiosyncracies. Katie Duncan finds out how stakeholders help smooth the settling in

process and speaks to students to discover what they find unusual when abroad.

it with everybody else’s bowl. Obviously he wanted to move straight away!”

AS IF MASTERING another language inside a new home and classroom wasn’t enough, international students are thrown into an alien environment of different accents, social norms, transport systems, currency, weather and the fact that almost everything they encounter is unlike the lifestyle they are used to. But what can educational agents and educators themselves do to prepare students for cultural assimilation into their new study destination?

“The students have no idea of what’s ahead, they just want to fly,” remarks Sue Magan, who has been sending Spa-nish students on overseas programmes for almost 20 years through her educational consultancy firm IEC Lynk. This company, like many other educational agencies around the world, does a lot of groundwork trying to open students’

”British people walk so much faster than Thai

people. Last month when I went back to Thailand my friend asked

me why I was walking so fast.””

Joompol (Ice) Tantikumnerdku from Thailand studying at The London School of English, UK

“What surprised me was the traffic and the Maltese people: they are so carefree, open and generous. Crossing the road is dangerous and funny…!” Alexandra Kati-nova, Slovakian, at EC Malta

“I was surprised to see how many kangaroos die on the roads in Australia.” Gabriel Janovitch, from Brazil studying at SEA in Sydney, Australia

CULTURE COLLISION

ALL

PH

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54 55| THE PIE REVIEW | ISSUE 05 ISSUE 05 | THE PIE REVIEW |

”KELLY KIM, International Student Ambassador, Australia

I have cousins in

the USA, UK and one in Canada, and nobody had studied in Australia, which is a good thing. Every time we have a family dinner I can talk about my experience in Australia and I’m not compared with the others, it’s my own experience.

”DERAR BAL’AWI, IGEC Consulting, MENA Region

KASP is coming to an end, so I think the alternative would be to attract internatio-nal universities to come and open campuses in Saudi Arabia. Instead of spending $50 billion on sending students abroad, we can invest in Saudi Arabia.

”RONG ZHOU, New Oriental Vision Overseas, China

We tour around the country to every corner of the land to inspire the younger generation. We have already made a lot of changes, from lecturing to the general public to giving classes in large groups of about 400 to 1000, to small classes of several students or even one-on-one mentoring.”

”KARAN KHEMKA, The Parthenon Group, UK

We are in the beginning, this isn’t an industry that has played out. The 10 biggest university companies in the world together would have less than a 1% market share of the global market. Everybody who is providing good outcomes has a place in the sector. It’s notoriously difficult to scale up because you

BILL LARKIN, ACCET, USA

With this legislation it is a challenge [to open a new school] because they pretty much have to have two years of operation before they are eligible to issue I-20s and in some cases before they are eligible to begin the accreditation process. It’s not impossible but it certainly is complicated.

” It’s not impossible

but it certainly

is compli-cated

”

No-body had studied in Australia, which is a good thing

”

”KATIE WESTERLUND, SEVP, USA

We’ve made some great strides in reducing our backlog throughout our adjudications. I think we are continuing to make strides and people have more and more confidence in our ability to do our jobs. We’ve come a long way. We are continuing to make strides”

can’t have one school in one area with 20,000 students, but I do think that there is an opportunity for many very small companies to triple in size.

There is an opportunity for small companies to triple in size”

The alternative would be to attract

international universities”

We tour around the country to every corner

of the land to inspire the younger generation

”

WHO SAID WHAT?

42 43| THE PIE REVIEW | ISSUE 05 ISSUE 05 | THE PIE REVIEW |

Space for learning

By nature student mobility is linked with sense of place. Students choose study destinations and institutions based on the expectations that they will learn the language and culture of the place. Perhaps what they don’t realise is how the physical learning spaces created by their study institutions can directly affect how they learn, how they are prepared for the world of work and how they interact with their teachers and fellow students. Sara Custer reports.

AS WELL AS a country’s outdoor archi- tecture and culture, inside a school, class- rooms, break out spaces, residences and com-mon areas all feed back into a student’s sense of a place and ultimately colour their study abroad experience.

A report last year by the OECD’s Learning Environme-nts Evaluation Programme (LEEP) highlights the hidden power of space and the influence it has over school orga-nisational structures and learning.

“The focus on the physical learning environment has emerged out of a concern as to whether the pedagogies, curriculum, assessment and organisational forms necessa-ry to develop the capacities in students for the 21st century require different built environments and usage,” it says.

The LEEP document goes on to say that even though schools now have culturally and academically diverse

student and community populations “school effectiveness and improvement studies often neglect context, rely on limited measures of outcomes and ignore the built lear-ning environment”.

For institutions, focusing on the detail of physical learning spaces can benefit them three-fold by creating positive learning outcomes, long-term economic sus-tainability and a chance to stand out in the competitive international student recruitment market.

Image is everything When the British government changed study visa regula-tions, essentially restricting enrolment opportunities for many education institutions, Stuart Rubenstein, director of Language in Group was one of many of language schools concerned about recruiting students.

PHOTO: COMPASS INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL, QATAR

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