Author: Admin

How educational institutions can capitalise on the rise in Chinese students

“Gain a deeper understanding of the decision-making process Chinese international students and their parents go through”

With over 500,000 Chinese students heading overseas for their education every year, China remains the top country of origin for international students worldwide. This number is expected to grow proportionately to the number of China’s upper-middle-class and affluent households, which is estimated to reach 100 million by 2020.

While the US, UK and Australia remain the most popular study destinations for Chinese students, we are starting to see new trends and preferences emerging. For instance, there has been an increase in Chinese international students going to non-English speaking countries and studying at 2nd and 3rd tier universities in English-speaking countries.
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Evidencing Success for International Students in Higher Education

“It’s one thing to see growth in your international student numbers, but unless you can see them through to graduation, can that be merited as success? “

“Much discussion is had over international student recruitment numbers at conferences and in the media,” says Market Development director for NCUK Georgina Jones. However, she adds, if you try and look into how international students perform at university there seems to be very little information out there.

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) provides details for high school performance but as far as we have seen, there is nothing for higher education performance.
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A slice of happiness: making international students feel at home

“Basic physiological needs such as shelter, food, warmth are fundamental and, if they are not met, then the chances of students reaching those higher levels of self-actualisation are limited”

In light of Mental Health Awareness Week,  director of Student Services at Bellerbys College Cambridge Mary Memarzia writes about the importance of making international students feel valued and at home when they make the difficult transition to a new country, culture and way of life.

Bread – a slice of happiness’ proclaims the message on the bread bin in the student’s kitchen. And yet, something as simple as a slice of bread can trigger unhappiness – particularly if it is the cheap, white, untoasted variety, which compared to the flavoursome bread from home is (as one of my students put it) ‘like eating chalk’.

It‘s a small thing but illustrates the importance of home cooking, family mealtimes, the very taste of home, when considering factors that influence a student’s happiness.

“Home is, after all, more than a just a place to live. New accommodation may be represented as a ‘home away from home’, but it’s still ‘away from home’”

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How international students can benefit from online learning

“Sometimes learning can be a long and a tedious journey…online learning makes that journey interesting and fun”

CEO of internship & training platform Internshala Sarvesh Agrawal discusses the benefits of online learning over traditional classroom-based learning.

Many students across the globe looking for internship and job opportunities end up getting rejected, and the reason behind the rejection is often of a lack of relevant skills. Employers actively seek to hire students who have skills and knowledge that could be put to the test and be an asset to the company. One possible so to the problem is online learning.
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Exploring the Factors Influencing Language Learning

“What we need is to get motivated and immerse ourselves in different cultural experiences when learning a new language”

Educational travel consultant at Edukt Violeta Petkova explores the influencing factors and decisions that young people and adults make when choosing a new language to learn.

A fundamental decision for young people to make is choose which language they want to learn. However, I believe it is not always clear which language is best for them, and may even become confusing because it’s a choice that touches our lives when we decide on a school, college, profession, living space, goals and how we approach challenges.

Sometimes it depends on several factors: a parent´s suggestion, current trends and social surroundings, family background, special books, movies, musical influences, professional development, favourite travel destinations, love stories – there are many personal reasons that can make you think about and reconsider your choice of language.
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International students & the power of imagery to address mental health

“Imagery and metaphor are powerful tools for enhancing understanding with international students”

 Pat Moores director and co-founder of UK Education Guide looks at how visual aids can help to enhance understanding when working with international students and their mental health.

Much is talked about the cultural challenges that international young people face when they first arrive in the UK, but the challenges are particularly acute for international students entering the UK education system at a young age. There is a minimum of 27,000 children under the age of 18* whose parents live outside the UK and are studying at UK schools and Boarding schools.

It is difficult to argue that the challenges facing these young people aren’t greater than the international students entering the UK education aged 18 and above.
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eTextbooks: bringing learning to life for international students

“International education is changing, and it’s up to us all in the sector to keep up with the technologies that shape its future”

There is concern in the UK higher education sector that Brexit and tighter government controls on immigration are starting to put some prospective foreign students off studying in the country. It’s more important than ever for universities to improve the learning experience of international students, and in this week’s blog, we look at how digital course materials can aid students’ transition to a course in a new location.

The latest UK Council for International Student Affairs report shows that there are over 442,375 international higher education students in the UK, of which 6% are from the European Union and 13% from the rest of the world. The number of Chinese students exceeds any other nationality; almost one-third of non-EU students in the UK are from China.

“If English is not a student’s first language, absorbing the key messages across significant amounts of texts can present a real challenge on top of already stressful degree demands”

Many university courses rely on print as the primary resource to support learning and some reading materials can be very text heavy and dense to process.  Engagement with the material can be quite static and mastery of the subject can be more challenging than it should be as a result.
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Getting the Most from Educational Marketing

“We’ve seen a significant rise in ad spend for social media and the like, yet direct mail is still proving successful”

First impressions count when it comes to educational marketing. In this week’s PIE Blog Jason Sullock, marketing manager at UK mailing house Washington Direct Mail discusses the potential for direct mail and how you can get the most from your strategy.

Educational marketing is critical to boosting the profile of your school and encouraging those prospects to visit.

In the digital age, we’ve seen a significant rise in ad spend for social media and the like, yet direct mail is still proving successful. We live in a world where 269 billion emails are sent per day, with the number expected to rise to a staggering 333 billion.

The increasing chance of losing consumers due to email marketing getting lost in the sea of junk mail is growing, and the change is occurring.

“In 2018, the likes of Facebook and even Google opted to incorporate direct mail into their marketing”

Multi-Channel Integration

Nevertheless, we certainly cannot undermine the success rate for online advertising. However, place the two communication methods together and you have a force that is, quite literally, unstoppable. The sheer number of people you can target is astonishing, and multi-channel integration has also proven its success rate, lifting response rates by an impressive 118%.
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TOEFL’s rapid retreat from Vietnam: How computerisation allowed IELTS to dominate

“Let this be a warning to educational technologists…no matter how dominant a stake you hold, you serve the market and it could eat you for lunch”

The computerization of the TOEFL exam allowed the IELTS to dominate Vietnam, says Deren Temel, Manager of International Development at SEAMEO RETRAC in Ho Chi Minh City.  In this week’s PIE blog, Temel discusses “the TOEFL exam’s self-inflicted collapse” in Vietnam, and asks readers to lend their insight in the comments. 

Before we get into the strategic disaster that dethroned the TOEFL exam’s dominant position in Vietnam’s English credentials market, lets set a few things straight. Credentials are certificates, exam scores, or degrees that describe someone’s prior learning and/or skill level. The international recognition of credentials allows students to continue their education across borders.
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Zero-Sum Thinking: Why Trump Risks Zeroing Out America’s International Education Sector

“The colleges and universities that will be hurt most deeply by the flight of international students will be those in states that voted for President Trump”

The Trump administration policies are having a notable effect on the number of international students studying in the United States. Managing Director of University Ventures Ryan Craig writes about the impact of “zero-sum thinking” and the effect it could have on American universities and colleges that depend on international students for their survival.

Ever since I read The Art of the Deal in the 1980s, I’ve not been a fan of Donald Trump. In August of 2015, writing in Forbes, I marvelled that he was leading the pack of Republican candidates for President, calling him “untrustworthy,” “fickle,” and an “entertainer playing a businessman.” Nonetheless, I never expected him to be economically illiterate as well.

Many have commented that Trump’s approach to civil liberties appears to be that freedom from discrimination for one group doesn’t result in a net gain for society because “their gain is your loss.” This “zero-sum” thinking is equally clear in his approach to immigration. In Trump’s view – at least as played to his steadfast base – every immigrant is taking a job that would otherwise go to a native-born American.
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