From 2008 to 2011, I studied English Literature at the University of East Anglia, an establishment with more than 3,500 international students (or a third of the 2012-13 in take). In the three years I spent there, I met and made friends with students from California, Thailand and Nigeria; Russia, Australia and Malawi; Pakistan, Belgium and Tanzania.

In my first year, I lived on campus in the architectural rarity that is the UEA Ziggurats. My room was small but perfectly formed and I delighted in the rare personal freedom that I was allowed there. Sandwiched by Jao from Portugal, Stacey from Boston – and with Maiko from Japan just down the hall – students from all over the world lived together under one roof.  Above, below and side-by-side, one of the most poignant aspects of this multicultural cohabitation was that everyone was in the same position, on the threshold of a new chapter in life without the apparent prejudices or inequalities of their respective ethnicities. Housed inside our little concrete boxes of opportunity, we took to the task of education like a pack of hungry wolves.

My hallmates and I regularly ate together, taking it in turns to stage themed nights. It was the first time I ate real sushi and the last time I drank copious amounts of Sake. Not since that year have I eaten such a diverse (and boozy) parade of foodstuffs.

As a domestic student, it was a truly multicultural experience and to this day, I have strong connections with people in countries I’ve never been to. Thanks to the wonders of the web, I’ve been able to nurture these friendships and this has inadvertently created cornerstones in a world that I’ve barely started exploring.

Before going to university, my experience of other cultures was limited. Everyone at my state school was born and raised in our home town and aside from holidays to over-populated resorts in Europe (where you’re much more likely to bump into a fellow Brit than a local) I’d never had much contact with “international” people. As such, university taught me important lessons about ethnicity and culture, in that no matter where you’re from, when you’re put into a nurturing learning environment with like-minded people, you’re sure to blossom.

Despite this fortuitous discovery, it has recently been announced that in 2012, there was a 22 per cent drop in the number of foreign students studying in the UK. Following a tightening of VISA controls and a politicised crack down on immigration, official figures showed that in 2012 a net total of 153,000 migrant students came to the UK (down from 242,000 in 2011).

This news came as a shock to me. International students were paramount to my university experience – offering as much of an education as my actual degree, if not more. And yet despite the many opportunities available for international students in the UK, not to mention the hugely beneficial impact they have on the economy, David Cameron has decided to strengthen his policies against them. Oddly, the umbrella term “immigrant” still refers to international students – even though most of the EU does not recognise or practise this categorisation.

Let’s not forget that international students have to pay through the nose for their degrees, sometimes as much as three times the price of domestic students. You’d think that at a time of extreme economic fragility the prime minister would want to encourage one of the country’s most lucrative exports rather than making potential pound signs feel unwelcome. That’s not the half of it. A report by Oxford Economics estimated that the GDP generated by international students at the University of Exeter directly supports 2,480 jobs in the city. And above all else, international students play a vital role in academic research labs, particularly in science, engineering and maths – accounting for around 45% of the UK’s postgraduate students. These bright young things are willingly committing their lives to crucial research and yet UK politicians are trying to discourage them? It doesn’t make sense on any level.

We must not discredit just how valuable immigrants and international students are. They provide a context and a deeper understanding of what is an increasingly multicultural country. To deny that is to pull the wool over your own eyes. Multiculturalism should be embraced and celebrated, not chastised. By opening our minds and our communities to the culture of others, we are given a greater understanding of what it means to be human.

Emily Buchanan is a professional writer living in Norwich, UK. She’s passionate about the environment, education and human rights – subjects you’ll mostly find her writing/ranting about. Follow Emily on Twitter for the latest.

 When the latest South African high school graduation exams results were announced in January of this year amid a furore of expert criticism, I felt I’d made the right decision in moving my daughter into an international education system.

As a teacher myself, I have witnessed what many believe to be falling standards in education and the challenges this brings to students in their first year at university. A low pass rate for the graduation exam means that many students qualify to go onto university but discover when they get there, that they do not have the right skills to cope at that higher level. It is a real issue in this country that of every 1,000 children who start out in grade one in national education, only around five make it through tertiary education.

I’m fortunate that in my professional career I was introduced to the educational route that is also proving successful for my daughter. I started my career in government schools, but my teaching style didn’t always suit the official style. A school which offers qualifications from Cambridge International Examinations opened in my local area in 1999 and it didn’t take me long to realise that this was a syllabus I wanted to teach.

My friends teaching at the College persuaded me to join the team in 2001 and it was the best decision I have ever made for my career.  The qualifications suit my teaching style and I thoroughly enjoy the freedom of being able to develop my students and their attributes and interests as part of a bigger picture.

As my daughter approached high school age, she was also increasingly looking for a school environment which would give her more freedom, encourage creativity and prepare her well for university.

With this in mind, in her grade 8 year, we enrolled my daughter at the school where I teach – Ridgeway College in Louis Trichardt, Limpopo Province.  In recent years, she has studied a number of international qualifications, first Cambridge IGCSE and now Cambridge International AS Level. The benefits of these international qualifications are manifold.

Cambridge qualifications are recognised by universities all over the world – they provide students with skills they need to flourish in tertiary education. Locally, our universities are also becoming increasingly aware of the exceptionally high standard of education that Cambridge students enter into university with. Students are equipped with universal thinking skills, an analytical perspective and an ability to adapt to any change in their environment. They are taught communication skills, self-discipline, independent thinking and the ability to work on their own as well as a level of confidence that makes them stand head and shoulders above their peers in other systems.

Furthermore, international qualifications prepare young people for the world at large, above and beyond university.  I feel my daughter has been provided with a holistic, flexible education that enables her to cope in a workplace that – in today’s world – is fast moving and ever changing. She’ll be able to cope with new situations and be able to face challenges and move beyond her comfort zone. What’s more, emigration is definitely featuring more strongly in young people’s future plans than ever. By providing our children with the opportunity to do an international education, we are enabling them to have a wider choice for career options or studying overseas.

I feel certain that my daughter is much better prepared than her peers to cope with the ever-increasing demands of the outside world, because she has a set of skills that makes her adaptable and able to cope with pressure and large volumes of work.  Her level of confidence has shot up as she has been given the skills to communicate, to analyse and to problem solve in every aspect of her academic and personal, life.

I fully believe that our choice of qualifications have helped my daughter work towards achieving her long-held career dream of becoming an Air Traffic Controller.

In Grade 10, she completed work experience at the Air Force Base, coming home at the end of the first day having memorized the call signs of the fighter aircraft pilots, and being able to read and interpret both the weather station’s data and the radar system. She received a glowing appraisal for her confidence and her ability to analyse, interpret and apply information totally new to her.

As a teacher, I’ve witnessed how an international education can steer a student towards success but it’s really as a mother that I have experienced the full impact of these qualifications on all aspects of a young person’s life and I look forward to watching my daughter continue to reap the benefits for many years to come.

By Annaline Smit, mother and teacher at Ridgeway College, Louis Trichardt, Limpopo Province, South Africa

It was only five years ago that I was teaching English in South Italy using a blackboard and chalk. I never used to wear black to school; to do so would mean to go home covered in patches of white powder.

It was quite a luxury to start teaching in London with a white-board and dry-erase pens; so you can imagine my amazement the first time I encountered an interactive whiteboard. As I sat watching the demonstration, the colours; the lights; the sounds; things whizzing around the board, I thought to myself, “I’ll never be able to do that”. On the contrary, after I had used an IWB a couple of times, I wondered how I had ever lived without it. The chalk days seemed like a hundred years ago.

Finally – no more need for my infantile, unrecognisable drawings of vegetables

Nowadays, in my classroom, the IWB is always switched on. That doesn’t mean it’s always the focus of the action, but it does mean I can use it any time I need to show a visual. Finally – no more need for my infantile, unrecognisable drawings of vegetables (have you any idea how hard it is to draw “aubergine” with chalk?), thanks to Google images.

I am also a big fan of the timer on teachitworld.com, the phonetic chart at teachingenglish.org.uk, and looking at new language in context at corpus.byu.edu. Is it too obvious to mention YouTube and the limitless language one short video clip can generate?

As Director of Studies at Twin English Language Centre in South East London, I set out on a mission to introduce IWBs into our classrooms. It wasn’t at all easy. Firstly, I had to persuade the Finance Director that this was an investment worth making. Secondly, there were choices to be made; interactive projectors or interactive whiteboards, Smart board; Promethean; Epson; or other, which classrooms to start with, which wall to put it on… the list goes on.

For our students, technology isn’t something to be evaluated and appraised; it’s the way they live their lives

Thirdly, the teachers had to be trained, and, in some cases, persuaded to incorporate the technology into their lessons. The variety of reactions to the IWBs was fascinating.

In a recent lesson on inventions, I asked students to identify in what ways the classroom would have been different ten years ago. They immediately identified the IWB as a recent addition.

I am increasingly realising that our students are “digital natives” while we, the older generation of EFL teachers and managers, are “digital immigrants”. For our students, technology isn’t something to be evaluated and appraised; it’s the way they live their lives, they don’t know any different. For us, it’s something we need to fast come to grips with if we want to continue to engage, motivate, and indeed, teach our students.

Sarah Morse is the Principal of Twin English Centres’ English school in London, UK.

The number of results a Google map search for ‘colleges in London’ pulls up today could easily be mistaken for a coffee shop search. I suspect that a similar search in 2030 will look very different!

Technology has disrupted traditional business models across a range of industries; music and publishing being notable examples. It is going to do the same to education over the next two decades.

The social, cultural, economic and political impact of such an event would be significant, to say the least. We are living in an age where what worked in the past is increasingly losing its relevance in creating our future. So is the idea of a 3-year degree being relevant to a career spanning decades.

The increasing reliance on technology will continue to blur geographical boundaries

As a result the furrows of education as we know are bound to turn into broad learning fields. Learning (not necessarily education) will become a continuous part of our lives, consumed in smaller bytes – based on virtual interaction and available on-demand.

Credit ‘accumulation’ from multiple institutions over a prolonged period of time is expected to be the norm in attaining a qualification with face-to-face pedagogical experience becoming a premium feature and largely restricted to facilitating interaction and discussion.

The increasing reliance on technology will continue to blur geographical boundaries giving learners greater choice and flexibility in what they study and from whom. This is bound to foster fiercer competition and increased level of collaboration between HE institutions, which bodes well for the student of the future.

Pricing models too will reflect the very digital nature of learning; micro-priced but with large amounts of content available for free. In real terms, the cost of learning will reduce as technology gets better entrenched. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are already paving the way towards this new future with free course delivery.

Although there are reservations about their business case and effectiveness as a learning tool, MOOCs such as Coursera and edX have helped online learning break into its next level of development.There is an argument that technology will never be able to replace face-to-face interaction.

Yes, it may not for this generation. However, for the learner of 2030, born into a world of tablets computers, more adept at operating a touch screen than a pencil, technology will be second nature.

Social media addicts amongst us are already experiencing the digitization of interaction with our friends and family, once considered to be impervious to technological advances. Words such as education, learning and interaction will have a very different context to what it is today.

The UK Higher Education sector will need to adapt and fast to respond to the demands of the learner of 2030, who will expect the best, delivered in a manner and at a time of choice. Technology will play a key role in enabling ingenious partnerships between institutions and a differentiated learning experience.

UK institutions that fail to embrace this technology-led future of education risk the same fate as the now long gone manufacturing bastions of England

Some of the Ivy Leagues have already made a head start in this direction, with offerings such as MOOCs, spreading their sphere of reach wider and making it more accessible. They have, in a way, started to define this new future. For others, standing still is just not an option anymore.

UK institutions that fail to embrace this technology-led future of education risk the same fate as the now long gone manufacturing bastions of England. This metamorphosis in education will also create a level playing field for those institutions that do participate. What they do next will be decisive if they want to survive and compete in the digital future of 2030.

UK and India, with their legacy of relationship, have the opportunity to together create and not just follow this new future. The ‘Made in Britain’ brand of education is well placed to cater to the needs of this emerging economic power. The partnership will however require an unrelenting, collaborative Copyright 2013
approach.

Education providers on both sides must start to look beyond the often problematic and rarely successful traditional bricks and mortar approach. HE managers in India need to embrace technology for the power it holds in transforming the sector struggling to cope with high demand and low quality of education.

UK institutions on the other hand need to understand the complex and sometime counter intuitive social-economic-technological nuances of India – a country that leaped a generation in technology adoption is most likely to do so in education too. UK institutions would be well advised to start preparing for this leap. India could very well be the catalyst that leads the UK into the digital era of education.

Jasdeep Singh.

Jasdeep Singh is Founder of NineOne in the UK. Twitter: @NineoneIndia