Juan Franco’s Post

More English-taught programs, growing job opportunities and affordable options are fuelling the growth of Asian education “powerhouses” outside the big four, a new study has revealed. https://hubs.li/Q03QqzHh0

Universities push for UK’s swift return to Erasmus The UK’s possible re-entry into the Erasmus+ program, which enables students, staff, and trainees to study or train abroad, is gathering momentum. 🟣 Universities UK (UUK) and the European University Association (EUA), representing over 900 universities, have urged both sides to finalize a deal quickly, stressing that “time is of the essence.” If successful, the UK’s association with Erasmus+ would rebuild vital bridges for: ▪️ Student & staff exchanges across Europe ▪️ Enhanced skills and employability for UK & EU students ▪️ Stronger research and institutional collaboration 🟪 Jamie Arrowsmith, Director at UUK International, stated: “We urge all parties to move swiftly so that universities, students, and staff can plan with confidence.” The UK government has already signaled intent to rejoin the program, but only under “mutually fair financial terms.” 🟣 Negotiations are underway, and a final deal could allow Erasmus+ participation by mid-2026, restoring one of Europe’s most impactful exchange opportunities. 🟣 At Sash Overseas Advisers, we’re closely tracking these policy shifts, ensuring our students stay informed on UK–EU academic mobility and future study abroad pathways. Sash Overseas Advisers 03184843380 alayha.azam@sashadvisers.com #SashAdvisers #StudyInUK #ErasmusPlus #HigherEducation #InternationalStudents #UKUniversities #StudyAbroad #StudentExchange #GlobalMobility #EducationNews #UUK #EUA

As the international levy moves forward, will transnational education offer a real alternative for international UK Higher Education? It comes with rewards as well as challenges in a time of shifting sands. As QS best cities rankings demonstrate, global student choices have changed notably in recent years. Increasingly, international students are seeking ‘closer to home’ locations which offer a global student experience, regional graduate credibility and intercultural enrichment. Since 2000, the number of cross-border students has tripled to almost seven million. Meanwhile, recent geopolitical changes have also seen a greater number of displaced young people seeking stability and a home for Higher Education outside their nation. As the big four (US, UK, Australia and Canada) continue to vary student visa conditions year on year, prospective customers (and their families) have started to shift away from traditional hotspots to newly emerging international hubs, looking at both regional cost control and graduate ‘return on investment’. Some UK universities have leant into this early, through transnational (and occasionally joint-venture) campuses with over 600,000 UK HE students abroad today. Now is the time to anticipate long-term student behaviour changes. Future-proofing may indeed include TNE, collaborating with international local partners and creating new intellectual hubs, embracing a truly diverse and bespoke ageographic curricula. Remember to support peer-to-peer academic quality and strength through global pedagogical collaboration; be mindful to nurture educational innovation from the ground up as well as from a sales-led approach. This will help to reduce quality risks when finding your ideal partner and locale for transnational development. My advice: ●     Consider movement within a region: student migration may not be purely intercontinental as geopolitics evolve. Curate your offer to provide the most attractive regional experience.  ●     Look for similarities with communities across the world. Think how you impact your local community and consider other regions evolving socio-economically and pedagogically in the next period. ●     Be aware of the regional infrastructure. Ensure your future students will be able to study safely: without Maslow's hierarchy of needs, learning and success will be hampered daily. ●     Anticipate why your established international markets may want to relocate in future, and where they place their graduate reputational trust. Where might offer the new alternative to global experience and understanding? In a time of rhetoric, the successful institutions will be those who recognise students’ desire to study abroad is evolving to investment first, with self-actualisation and independence a close second. Being fleet of foot will gain a unique market proposition early, and ultimately support more international learners in future challenges. #UUKi #TNE2025 #transnationaleducation #universitiesUK

For international students, there is no longer a “big four” of Anglophone study destinations - there is now a “big 14” as competition for talent heats up. Stephanie Smith, Shanghai-based trade commissioner with the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade), said Chinese students heading overseas had traditionally chosen from the US, UK, Australia or Canada. That had changed since Covid. “The agents talk about the ‘big 14’,” Smith told the Australian International Education Conference (AIEC). “It puts us in a lot more of a competitive environment.” Hong Kong had become a “massive new market” for mainland Chinese students. Others included Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand, the United Arab Emirates and Ireland, which was “doing a good job at destination marketing in China”. France - aiming for 500,000 international students by 2027 - and Germany were considered safe and welcoming with good employment opportunities and low tuition fees. Turkey wants 500,000 international students by 2028. Kazakhstan’s target of 100,000 foreign students by 2028 has been increased by 50 per cent. Read John Ross on what this means in Times Higher Education below and share your thoughts…. #intled #internationaleducation #studyabroad #aiec https://lnkd.in/eiMf-2wz

The age of volume-first #internationaleducation is drawing to a close. According to Times Higher Education, the era of the “big four” destinations has shifted to a broader “big 14” landscape but as one senior commentator pointed out, “do we have the composition, the distribution, the integrity and the quality that we want?” At Asia Careers Group SDN BHD (ACG), our focus is outcomes not entrants. It’s not enough to count how many students arrive, the question is: what are their careers doing afterwards? Our data across #China, #India, #ASEAN & beyond shows that internationally-educated #graduates increasingly follow non-linear pathways (#internships, contract work, freelancing) before landing full-time roles. For #universities, recruiters & policymakers: the strategic imperative has shifted. You must ask: • How many graduates are securing meaningful #employment (not just any #job)? • How quickly are they doing so, and in what kind of role? • Are you capturing and publishing outcome data for internationally-educated #alumni, not just inbound numbers? We have drawn repeatedly on ACG’s dataset in our commentary in University World News & the conclusion is clear: the brand of your programme is tied more closely to graduate success than to #student volume. My call to action: If you’re representing a university or policy body, let’s shift the metric from “how many came” to “how many are thriving”. The future of #intled demands outcome transparency, data-driven strategy & a relentless focus on the graduate journey. Asia Careers Group SDN BHD - Investing in International Futures AGCAS AIEA - Association of International Education Administrators AUIDF Australian Technology Network of Universities (ATN Universities) British Council BUILA Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE) | Bureau canadien de l’éducation internationale EAIE: European Association for International Education Education New Zealand | Manapou ki te Ao International Education Association of Australia (IEAA) Innovative Research Universities (IRU) Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia National Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (NAGCAS) Regional Universities Network The Group of Eight UCAS UKCISA Universities Australia Universities Canada Universities UK Universities UK International

Rising Tide: Singapore’s Private Education Sector Attracts More International Postgraduate Students Recent data (from SkillsFuture / SSG, private education industry sources) signals a clear uptick in international student enrolment into Singapore’s private education institutions between 2022 ( SGD 3.36 Billion ) and 2024 ( SGD 3.58 Billion). What’s particularly striking is that much of the growth is among postgraduate students enrolling via transnational education (TNE) partnerships. As someone deeply immersed in strategic planning for private education providers, I see that it may mark a structural shift in the competitive dynamics of PEI landscape. Key Observations & Implications 1. Postgraduate segment driving growth The largest incremental growth in international enrolment is in postgraduate programmes delivered by private institutions in collaboration with foreign universities (i.e., TNE) by 7 percent from 2023. This suggests demand is maturing beyond the undergraduate “twinning” model into deeper credentials and specialization. 2. Singapore’s relative advantages, while Hong Kong continues to vie for foreign university students (even expanding non-local admission quotas), its growth is lagging below pre-pandemic levels. In contrast, Singapore is emerging as an attractive alternative. Key differentiators: 1. Geopolitical stability & open economy: Singapore is perceived as a safer, stable hub in a more volatile region. 2. English-medium and globally aligned: English is the language of business and tertiary education in Singapore, which lowers friction for many prospective international students and institutions. 3. Regulatory certainty for private education: Over time, Singapore has developed a framework accommodating private providers and TNE models. 4. Strong brand and institutional ecosystem: Singapore’s universities and allied private providers enjoy consistent rankings and reputational capital compared to Hong Kong’s pressures, there over 60 global universities offering TNE programmes. Strategic inflection for private education providers (PEIs) - PEIs with TNE partnerships are well positioned to ride this wave, especially if they can deliver postgraduate programmes with strong employer relevance and regional appeal. - Those focusing solely on undergraduate or purely local programmes may face increased competition or margin pressure. - Providers should invest in program quality, student support, international marketing, alumni outcomes, and credibility. What once was a domain dominated by undergraduate “feeder” models is now maturing into a more sophisticated, outcomes-driven postgraduate arena. Singapore’s private education sector seems poised to capitalize on this inflection but only those providers that anticipate, adapt, and differentiate will thrive. Hong Kong in fight for foreign university students as Singapore emerges as rival | South China Morning Post https://lnkd.in/gFhScrVx

Has TNE really “come of age”? A really thoughtful post by Nic Mitchell on the recent Universities UK International #TNE conference (although I hope he wasn’t counting me among the old timers). TNE has, of course, been with us for as long as we’ve had places of learning and people on the move. It wasn’t new 30 years ago and it’s not new now. What’s new is how visible and financially important it has become for many UK universities. As Simon Marginson and van der Wende reminded us some years back, higher education has always been more open across borders than most sectors because knowledge doesn’t easily respect national boundaries. Universities have always borrowed, adapted, and shared ideas internationally, whether through scholars travelling, degrees franchised, or campuses replicated eg through the work of the London External Programme (later University of London International). And while the UK is certainly active in this space today, it’s far from alone. Germany’s long-standing partnerships in Jordan and Cairo and France’s cross-border alliances all show that TNE isn’t a British invention, nor that there’s a single model. And there are lots of examples of overseas universities with a presence in the UK demonstrating that the UK can be both an importer as well as exporter of TNE. Of course, for many UK institutions, today’s focus on TNE is about the search for new markets and financial rescue. Time will tell which of the recently announced ventures will deliver what their leaders hope for. What’s certain is that: (1) TNE will remain part of many UK university strategies for the foreseeable future and (2) that genuine success usually takes longer than a single vice-chancellor’s (or pro-vice-chancellor’s) term in office. The real test isn’t how many campuses or students you can count in year one, but whether the work still makes sense five or ten years later, usually well after the first leaders have moved on.

Headline: China Higher Ed in this Asian Century By QS Quacquarelli Symonds magazine For decades, global student mobility has followed a predictable path: from the Global South to the Global North. But that map is being redrawn. At the recent BUILA conference, Dr Cheryl Y. also highlighted China's Education Modernisation 2035 policy, which prioritises TNE within China despite the country already being the largest host of UK TNE programmes. The most innovative way is to consider leveraging the Chinese strategy, and “this strategy involves bringing in global education expertise while simultaneously going global with Chinese universities”. The most profound trend shaping global recruitment is the accelerating regionalisation of the Chinese student body. At the recent UUKI blog, our Director Dr Mark Edwards at TNE-Institute also emphasised that universities must pivot to a regional operation model. The goal? Move beyond centralised management from home countries and build hubs that facilitate recruitment and TNE within regions themselves. Global universities are no longer an uncommon term. This creates a more dynamic, multi-directional flow of students—particularly South-to-South-to-North-South mobility. The Malaysian Case Study: A Blueprint for Success Malaysia perfectly encapsulates this shift. It's now a major educational hub for Chinese students, with numbers skyrocketing to over 47,000. Why? Because it offers: ✅ Prestigious UK Degrees: Through branch campuses of universities like Nottingham, Southampton, and Heriot-Watt. ✅ Affordability & Proximity: A high-quality, lower-cost alternative to studying in the West. ✅ Cultural Resonance: A study environment that feels more accessible to many students. What are your thoughts on China’s higher education in this Asian Century? Jon Santangelo Anton John Crace Dave Amor #FutureOfEducation #GlobalMobility #TNE #ChinaHigherEd #InternationalRecruitment #HigherEdStrategy #BUILA https://lnkd.in/eET4K8pD

Agree with this Nic, though I’d say that (despite the impression given by certain press releases), there is generally a much higher level of knowledge and understanding of TNE now. Some of this understanding may be due to British Council studies on TNE (with more coming out at Going Global later this month). https://lnkd.in/eWcS3VFk

France reported a record 443,500 international students enrolled in higher education during 2024/25, which is a 3% year-on-year increase and a 17% rise over five years. That puts foreign students at nearly 15% of total higher-education enrolment in France. This growth is being driven by Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, and increasingly South Asia. Interestingly, the top 10 sending countries together account for just over half of France’s international population, with Morocco, Algeria, China, Italy, Senegal, Tunisia, Spain, the Ivory Coast, Cameroon, and Lebanon among them. India has entered the top ranks, now sending ~9,100 students (a +17% jump year-over-year), reflecting momentum in Franco-Indian mobility. While universities host about 63% of foreign students, business schools are growing fast, showing 52% growth over five years. France is already positioning itself as an alternative to the traditional Anglo destinations. It is also true that it can absorb more international students when compared with other smaller European countries. Stable visa, scholarship, and language support policies reinforce France’s appeal, especially as source markets diversify. The visa process, though stringent, filters out genuine students and ensures that quality students reach France’s classrooms. As business schools and specialized programs scale, promoting niche degrees such as those in luxury, aerospace, and oenology (study of wines) and research strengths will become key to standing out.