Dear member
Ratings for the ‘international student experience’
Now that it’s a new year (and happy new year!), let’s start on a positive note with the largely positive and fascinating report by the HE International Unit ‘International Undergraduate Students: The UK’s Competitive Advantage’ published last month just before we all packed our bags and started to think of other things.
I am going to spend a little time on it as it is, to my knowledge, the first time that I-Graduate’s International Student Barometer results from the UK and from our main competitors in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the US have been published (or at least comparatively published) and although they are limited to international undergraduates, the 55 page report makes fascinating reading.
It shows how each (ISB assessed) aspect of the international student experience is rated in each country, what changes there have been to ratings between 2008 and 2014 and which are the most important decision making factors (or sources of advice and influence on overseas study choices) for students from each of 15 overseas countries.
The general conclusions, I am sure we are all delighted to know, are that:
- ‘The UK has the highest satisfaction ratings amongst our competitors for all the dimensions of the student experience: overall satisfaction, learning, living, support and the arrival experience’;
- ‘International undergraduate student satisfaction in the UK is 91%’
- ‘UK universities have seen improvements in international student satisfaction across 75 out of 84 measures’ and
- Even where satisfaction rates are lower, they are usually better than those in key competitor countries!
Of course the fact that our satisfaction ratings are better than some or all of those for other countries doesn’t necessarily say that problems – and the sort of problems which many of us encounter or are told about by students – don’t exist.
For instance, we are told that the UK has higher satisfaction ratings for the cost of living than our main rivals - although cost of accommodation, opportunities to earn money and financial support from the university scored some of the lowest marks on record. On ‘making host friends’, we scored marginally better than any of the other ‘big 4’ although with only 77% satisfaction (and only a 2% increase over the last six years) we clearly still have some way to go. Interestingly, our old chestnut of the ease of opening a bank account has apparently improved by 13% over the last few years - which I presume is the case. Or is it or is something else at play here?
Of particular interest to many of us, UK student advisory services, the students’ union and clubs and societies all recorded very high scores (94%) – with careers services not far behind with 91% - and our visa advice, remarkably but impressively given all our challenges, was rated (slightly) higher than for Australia, Canada, New Zealand or the US. It is all you specialists out there (with a little help from us) keeping up with the ever-changing rules!
So it all seems to be an extremely positive story. But I am just left with the slight feeling that whilst so much of this is so encouraging – and so helpful for overseas promotion – data alone might just disguise or could just be missing something and not identify some of the very real (human and personal) difficulties and concerns which we know many international students in the UK face in terms of cultural adjustment, transition, support, isolation, funding, making UK friends, actually opening a bank account, understanding and fulfilling immigration requirements, finding part-time or full-time jobs etc. etc.
Does all of this help you to identify where the real challenges lie and where improvements should be made to make the UK experience even better? Does it tell us where the big gaps are and what to do next?
Do these results chime with your own students’ experiences? Have any of them led you (or might lead you) and your senior managers to re-shape services, re-allocate resources or change aspects of practice? We’d be fascinated to hear from you via our forum or by email about your thoughts.
It will also be interesting to see the second report in this series coming out soon, on the postgraduate experience, which I understand may well highlight some additional areas where the experience could be improved and which we will again feature when published.
Members’ Forum events in Manchester and London
Hopefully we might also be able to discuss some of this in one of the forthcoming Members Forum events in Manchester on 10 February (see programme now available) and/or in London on 15 and 17 March as these are fittingly themed ‘What makes a good international student experience?’.
The events, as we hope you know, are open to anyone from any member institution and we are really keen to attract those in a range of roles from advice to compliance, to admissions, to recruitment, to student unions to anyone else with interests in and responsibilities for international students. There will be an update (and especially for new contacts) on who we are and what we do. We will debate a little the main immigration challenges and strategies for addressing them. We will hear from a panel of students, consider new ideas and approaches and discuss some of the big issues currently confronting us.
Please do come along – and perhaps bring a student representative or colleague who deals with some other aspect of international work.(We have kept charges to the absolute minimum so that you can do so!).
Other UKCISA events
Colleagues have also asked me to highlight that we still have some vacancies for two of our forthcoming training courses – The Holistic Advisor (essentially what we used to call Basic Advisory Skills) in London at the end of this month and then also in London, on 3 February, an extra Tier 4 Basics course as there has been so much demand.
And then for anyone thinking of submitting a proposal for our Annual Conference this year (29 June to 1 July in Sheffield), a reminder that the deadline for submissions is 29 January so please do put pen to paper or thinking caps on before then. Our conference pages give full details on what is required and how to submit a proposal but if you have any queries on any aspects do contact Julie Allen (Director Policy and Services) dps@ukcisa.org.uk.
International Higher Education Forum 2016 (including refugee issues)
Another event which you may be interested in is this annual forum run by UUK and the HE International Unit, held this year on 1 March, with the programme including some big international themes and speakers but also, in part at our suggestion and with me chairing, one of the parallel sessions on how UK universities are assisting refugee students and academics or those with similar or related status.
This is something we have been tracking for many months and attempting to enlist the interest of BIS and the Home Office in issues of status and related fee and student support regulations but we know that in parallel various universities have announced special schemes and it should be really valuable to hear how some of these have developed, to pool some knowledge around approaches and good practice and to hear from the likes of CARA on the work they do in association with HEIs.
Immigration issues
Which brings us (at last!) to immigration issues where there haven’t in fact, given the Christmas and New Year break, been many developments since I wrote last in mid November. But just to report that:
- We published just before Christmas a Special Briefing which I hope you have all seen on the November immigration changes which gives a summary of those related to students, our comments on and analysis of them and questions which we have raised with the Home Office. This will be subsumed into the updating of the UKCISA Manual which is due to be distributed this year at the beginning of April (although as usual, Section 1 on Immigration will be available on the website two or three weeks in advance).
- The Immigration Bill continues its passage through Parliament and for those who are tracking or able to influence, perhaps via Chancellors or other contacts in the House of Lords, we have just recently produced a new briefing and lobbying note with our specific concerns and extensive evidence of potential difficulties for international students which you have kindly provided. (Tim Fallon MP has now put down an Early Day Motion on the Right to Rent checks which come into force on 1 February and which you might like to encourage interested local MPs to support).
- There was to have been a meeting of the Home Office chaired Education Sector Forum last week but it has been postponed for a number of reasons so no update there. (Incidentally I was interested to see the wording of the recently produced minutes of the last meeting which say that ‘The Home Office provided an update on future policy thinking, in response to recent misreporting in the education sector press, covering the English language requirements in Tier 4, the maximum permitted visa refusal rate, the skills threshold for work by Tier 4 dependants, and the use of exit checks data in Tier 4. A further update would be given once final policy decisions had been taken by Ministers’. (NB My italics!)
- They did however note that the postponement might mean that by the time we do meet, the Migration Advisory Committee might well have published its expected report on Tier 2 which is likely to have considerable implications for international students and so this is something to look out for over the next month or so.
- The Home Affairs Committee has meanwhile published its Report on Skill Shortages and, as you can see from our summary and extracts, included (once again) some very helpful comments and recommendations on international students, work and indeed inclusion in statistics and net migration targets.
- And as you may have seen, just yesterday the Home Office published its proposals for various visa and related fee increases for the coming year saying that ‘Visas linked most closely to economic growth, such as those offered to workers and students, will be restricted to an increase of 2%’ (which I suppose is good news although I did hear the other day from a source in India that it was not helpful for the UK to charge £322 for a student visa compared to the USA’s equivalent of £132 and Canada’s £75).
GREAT Britain Scholarships India
However much more positively I also spotted recently the incredibly impressive portfolio of new GREAT Britain Scholarships for India which include now 291 scholarships from some 45 UK universities all put together by the British Council and part sponsored by the GREAT promotional programme. Take a look at this brochure on the scheme which will hopefully do much – though not all of course – to address at least some of the concerns in that country (and with similar programmes elsewhere).
Communications
Finally, and closer to home, you may like to see a recent article I did for Study Travel Magazine on who we are, what we do, why and some thoughts on current priorities and challenges.
And even closer to home, just to say that I am delighted to announce that we now have a new colleague (Jane Woodley) who has just joined us as our Web and Communications Manager and will be leading on a number of new project areas and initiatives over the coming months. We want to put even more effort into this to ensure we are getting the right information to you and to students (and to influential others), in the right format, at the right times and through the most appropriate medium and if you have any particular ideas or views on this do email me – or her direct at Jane@ukcisa.org.uk.
Or come along to one of the Manchester or London events and let us have your views and suggestions direct on how we can all have even more impact over the coming year!
With best wishes
Dominic
Dominic Scott
Dominic Scott, Chief Executive
UK Council for International Student Affairs
chiefexec@ukcisa.org.uk
Archive of monthly news from the Dominic Scott, Chief Executive
