News
Overseas agent probe
1st December 2006
Potential foreign students are misled about what to expect at UK universities, reports Tony Tysome Some overseas agents helping universities to lure international students to the UK are giving recruits false hopes of what British higher education can offer, The Times Higher has learnt. There is mounting concern over the damage that unscrupulous agents are doing to Britain's reputation in the multibillion-pound market for overseas students, and concern about the knock-on effects for lecturers facing the brunt of complaints from disillusioned students.
I-graduate, an education consultancy, is launching a review of the rapidly growing number of unregulated agents who are prepared to sell places by making false assurances to students over their employment prospects and the facilities and level of support they will find in the UK. Free top-of-the-range equipment for personal use, daily one-to-one tuition, guaranteed work placements with blue-chip companies, easy-to-find, lucrative part-time work and hotel-style accommodation are among the promises made to persuade students to part with tens of thousands of pounds in fees and living costs. It is estimated that there are at least 5,000 agents worldwide whose activities account for 10 to 60 per cent of institutions' annual intake of overseas students. Some are having a role in admissions decisions, previously the exclusive responsibility of academics.
Their number and the size of their commissions [up to 15 per cent of their recruits' tuition fees] are rising as institutions strive to fight off fierce competition and to hit their own ambitious targets for increasing income from the burgeoning overseas market. I-graduate will begin a study next year into how agents operate, what kind of relationship they have with the institutions they represent and how much they know about the institutions and their marketing strategies. William Archer, i-graduate director, said: "We have seen a dramatic rise in the use of agents, yet this remains a relatively unregulated and misunderstood area. Institutions have set themselves high recruitment targets that they are now having to deliver. They are requiring agents to help them achieve these goals, and this can result in complicated financial arrangements that might give cause for concern." Ganesh Valmiki, head of ValmikiEdu, an agency based in Hyderabad in India, told The Times Higher that some agents were prepared to supply false documents to help students get visas as well as making unrealistic promises about what they would find when they arrived in the UK.
He said: "Some charge 500 to provide a fake certificate saying a student has 6,000 to help them get a visa. Others place students in accommodation up to two hours from their university. Some tell students they will be able to work up to 40 hours a week and make a lot of money. Many students end up very disappointed." Joe Docherty, director of the international office at Portsmouth University, said that agents working in his institution's main markets received training and were required to work from a script. But he admitted that many international students came in via agents in smaller markets that did not get such training. "I do not think that too many institutions in the UK would thank you for being absolutely frank about the quality of some of their facilities.
"There is a natural tension between wanting to give accurate information and trying to persuade students to come to the UK," he said. Karen Blackney, deputy director of the Centre for International Education at Middlesex University, said: "It is crucial to get it right because if a student is unhappy they can easily damage an institution's reputation by posting their feelings on the web." Issahaku Kotomah, international student officer for the National Union of Students, said many students faced "big-time disappointment" on arriving in the UK only to find they had been given inaccurate information. There is concern that staff are facing the brunt of dashed expectations. Sally Hunt, joint general secretary of the University and College Union, said: "Lecturers are under enough pressure. Their cause is not helped if their students have been made false promises by rogueJagents."
Tim Westlake, head of Manchester University's international office, said: "We need to be honest and transparent. We have to ensure our marketing does not build an unrealistic picture."
Foreign students put off by cost of living in the UK
2nd November 2006
The UK is thought to be the most expensive study destination in the world by international students living in countries identified as key emerging target markets for British institutions, a survey has found, writes Tony Tysome. The verdict of more than 4,600 students from 120 countries, surveyed by consultants i-graduate, was that Britain was an even more expensive place to study than the US.
This is bad news in the light of another finding in the survey - that course and living costs are the biggest concerns for students considering studying overseas. It could help explain why the UK is rated behind both the US and Australia, and in some cases below Canada too, by students living in emerging market countries, such as Pakistan, the Philippines, Indonesia and Bangladesh. This is despite British higher education qualifications being more highly regarded than those from anywhere else in the world apart from the US.
The perception of Britain as highly expensive is likely to prove a handicap for UK universities unless they can begin to make more intelligent use of bursaries and scholar-ships, according to William Archer, the director of i-graduate . He said: "These findings suggest we cannot trade on academic reputation alone. We need to be seen to be offering more if we are going to stay ahead of our competitors. It could mean, for instance, some intelligent use of bursaries.
"Quite often, at the moment, these are driven not by the strategic goals of institutions but rather by departments." Britain was also considered to be a less safe place to live and study than most competitor countries. Mr Archer said there was work to be done, in this case on managing perceptions. He said: "We know that most overseas students do feel safe in the UK. But before they come here there is a perception that we are less safe than our competitors."
Complacent staff could lose foreign enrolments
10th February 2006
Academics need more training to help them avoid cultural clashes and misunderstandings with the rising number of overseas students they must teach and supervise, according to international students' representatives. The representatives called this week for urgent action to address the issue amid widespread concern that a lack of systematic staff training would further weaken the UK's position in the lucrative overseas market. Lecturers and postgraduate supervisors who had not learnt how to handle the cultural complexities of communicating effectively with students from different countries ran the risk of causing confusion or anger, which could damage an institution's reputation abroad, they said.
The warning follows research by education consultants that highlights the dangers of failing to pick up quickly problems experienced by international students. A survey of more than 18,000 international students, carried out last November by the International Graduate Insight Group (i-graduate), found that most were happy with their education. But Will Archer, i-graduate director, warned that institutions could not afford to be complacent about the minority who had unresolved problems. When feelings were running high, students who felt aggrieved were liable to broadcast their complaints over the internet. This made it all the more important for academic and support staff to be trained to rapidly spot the warning signs of problems that might otherwise be missed because of cultural or language barriers, Mr Archer said.
"It is not uncommon to hear an academic say they enjoy their job but international students are a problem. Often it is because when they entered higher education they were not having to teach in such complex multicultural contexts," he said. "Staff may say they know when their students have a problem without realising that students from certain countries will not make their discontent obvious in a way they might expect."
A fifth of complaints received by the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for higher education last year were from overseas students, who make up only a tenth of the UK student population. Ruth Deech, the Adjudicator, said misunderstandings between academics and students were often at the heart of problems. "UK academics tend to use quite moderate language and expect international students to understand that if they are not praising them wholeheartedly, there may be something wrong with their work," she said. Benson Osawe, international student officer for the National Union of Students, said: "Students from some parts of the world, such as Africa, will have been taught to respect their tutors and not to question them, so they are unlikely to raise a problem.
"Academics need to be trained to appreciate these kinds of cultural differences. But I think some universities are reluctant to make training mandatory for fear of upsetting the staff unions." Jude Carroll, deputy director of the Centre for Excellence in Assessment Standards and Knowledge Exchange at Oxford Brookes University, recently published a book on the issue based on her research.
She said: "I am staggered by the lack of empathy of some academic staff. The fear for many of them is that this will take up more of their time. But they need to realise its importance and be more focused about how things need to change." But academic union leaders thought most institutions were doing enough training. Steve Wharton, president of the Association of University Teachers, said: "When it comes to staff training, it has to be recognised this is another call on academics' time."