A leading homestay and hosted accommodation provider working across Australasia is looking to solve a shortage in housing for international students as it seeks backing from investment banks in the region. MyStay International, which is the owner of the Australian Homestay Network, appointed investment banking veteran Ed Slade who heads up education-focused Schoolhouse Solutions earlier this year to rally interest in the homestay sector. In 2023, MyStay International provided rooms for some 11,750 students, making it the country’s largest homestay provider. Additionall ..read more

Scotland’s current political turmoil and dragging feet around its new international education strategy has been frustrating the body representing its universities. Speaking during a panel on regional approaches to international strategies in the UK, Universities Scotland senior policy officer David Donaldson said commitments from the Scottish government needed to be honoured in an uncertain time. “We have this political commitment to higher education, which on some level we can’t afford – and so we have filled the gap with international students,” he told delegates at IHEF on May 1. Scotl ..read more

The University of Roehampton and FutureLearn have announced a new strategic partnership for the delivery of online degrees. Roehampton’s partnership with online education giants FutureLearn will commence with a suite of nine post-graduate business programs from May 2024. In a statement, the university said that expanding across provisions, the partnership will enable students seeking online education to access Roehampton’s quality portfolio of future focused degrees. The partnership agreement was signed by Jean-Noël Ezingeard, vice-chancellor at the University of Roehampton and Jo Jo ..read more

India has overtaken China as the second-most represented country in the Times Higher Education Asia University rankings 2024, with 91 universities compared with the neighbouring nation’s 86 institutions. Japan has maintained its top position with 119 universities, while Mainland China takes five of top 10 positions, including first and second. Other countries the ranking compiler has highlighted are Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, which THE says excelled in the 12th edition of the ranking. Additionally, two Indonesia universities have “jumped up a band”, Turkey ..read more

Once the UK HE sector has ‘toughed it out’ through the MAC review announcement and net migration figures, it can start looking more concretely at the future, stakeholders said. Wendy Alexander, VP of international at the University of Dundee, warned delegates at the International Higher Education Forum in London that they were in for an uncomfortable month as key dates approach. “Some time between May 14 and May 23, you will see a pretty hostile announcement from the government,” she predicted, as leaders discussed the UK, Australia and Canada’s state of sector affairs. The announcement would ..read more

Regional employers in Australia should be looking at ways to attract international students to fill positions amid a chronic skills shortage, including offering graduate programs and assistance with settlement and support for families relocating from overseas, stakeholders have said. As demand for jobs continues to outstrip supply in regional Victoria, particularly in trades and services, healthcare and medical, and manufacturing, transport and logistics, employers should be looking at international students as ”a very fruitful talent pool”, James Woodhall, senior account manager in higher edu ..read more

The Indian Institute of Technology Madras has partnered with two German universities on new joint master’s programs, which will enable students to study at the three campuses during the course. Together with RWTH Aachen and TU Dresden, IIT Madras will enable the mobility of enrolled students specialising in water security among the three universities. The students will commence the academic year at IIT Madras and spend at least one semester at TUD and RWTH, with the flexibility to execute their master’s thesis at the institution of their c ..read more

The UK’s minister for exports has assured UK stakeholders of the government’s commitment and understanding of international students and their impact, but not everyone is convinced. As stakeholders eagerly await the findings of the Migration Advisory Committee’s review into the Graduate Route on May 14, and the governments subsequent policy decision, Lord Offord of Garvel, minister for exports, addressed delegates at the 2024 International Higher Education Forum, organised by Universities UK. “I wish to assure you that that while appropriately examining the Graduate Route, we also recognise in ..read more

Postgraduate business and MBA students are changing their preferences for further education, with AI content leading an increased demand for technology topics. Only one in five students want to study entirely on campus, while two in five would consider short non-degree courses without academic credit instead of traditional MBAs, new research shows. The Tomorrow’s MBA study, by CarringtonCrisp in association with EFMD, questioned 2,263 prospective students from 32 countries on what they are looking for regarding further training. It found that 6 ..read more

Universities in the UK, Australia and Canada have announced staff layoffs and course suspensions as government policies limiting international student numbers cause increasing financial strain. Fifty-five UK universities have now confirmed staff redundancies due to falling international student numbers and declining real-terms value of domestic tuition fees.   New data for the beginning of 2024 shows that the number of individuals intending to enter the UK using a study visa has reached record levels since the pandemic, falling by 27% in two years. In this time, government policies remove ..read more