Catégorie : Student News

International students in the UK will get the opportunity to work for more than 20 hours a week. They will have the option of going for part-time jobs to meet the challenge of skills shortage in different sectors. 

After Brexit, the UK faced a shortage in workers and a significant drop in the economic activity and it got worse due to the pandemic.

For the previously mentioned reasons , it has opened new opportunities for international students to experience professional life by extending their part time job hours. The government wants to boost its economy and fill the job vacancies by adopting such new regulations.

Getting a part time job during studies is undeniably a great way to improve the student’s language level, their communication and their social skills without ignoring maintaining their financial stability.

The new rule will also benefit employers as they can now access larger profiles from around the world. This could open up opportunities for businesses in sectors that were previously closed off due to lack of skilled workers or language barriers.

This comes amid the country’s ongoing struggle with shortage of skilled labor. Faced with a tight labor market and a shortage of workers with key software engineering skills.

This move by the UK government is sure to have a positive impact on both employers and students alike, as it will provide more job opportunities and allow foreign students to gain valuable work experience while pursuing their studies.

In response to a continuing labor shortage, the Canadian government has allowed international students to work off-campus for up to 40 hours per week. As of July, when the job vacancy rate in Canada dropped to 5.4% from 6% in April, Canadian employers actively sought to fill roughly one million positions.

Are you ready to switch your status from an aspiring student to an active student in Canada? the answer is a yes since you can and here is why :

Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Minister Sean Fraser said, « There are more job opportunities than employees in nearly every community in Canada and he added to say that he anticipates that there may be some international students who will find jobs in their area of study, while there may be others who will be employed in the service field.

The country has been working diligently to bring about changes to its ongoing immigration system, giving first priority to those individuals who are actually in Canada in the Canadian Experience sub-category, as the number of job opportunities has increased.

The Canadian government values international students, as evidenced by this modernization, and is willing to adjust the regulations to the demands of the workforce.

For international students, this means the following: Before the implementation of the new policy, international students enrolled at a recognized Canadian institution were restricted to 20 hours per week of off-campus work activity. 

But now they have a more solid financial footing, despite the high costs of studying in Canada. The original purpose of the regulation was to prevent students from leaving school to find work.

This will increase the number of international students able to gain the professional work experience they need to support Canada’s post-pandemic growth. 

Canada is lifting the 20-hour-a-week limit on the number of hours international students can work off-campus, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Sean Fraser announced on Friday. The new policy will only apply to students studying full time and will be in effect from November 15 through the end of 2023.

Students have said the 20-hour cap made them vulnerable to exploitation because many end up working longer hours without protections.

Canada’s job vacancy rate was 5.4% in July, down from a peak 6.0% in April 2022. Canadian employers were actively looking to fill nearly 1 million jobs as of July.
« There’s more job opportunities than there are workers in almost every community in Canada, » Fraser said, adding that while some international students will work in service jobs, he hopes some will find employment in their field of study.
Fraser said lifting the cap will give students a greater choice of employment opportunities, making them less likely to fall victim to « unscrupulous employers. »
That will actually create a better opportunity for students to not fall victim to an individual employer they may be beholden to. »
Fraser also announced a pilot project to automate some approvals of study permit extension applications, meant to address a backlog.
Canada has become increasingly dependent on temporary residents, including international students, to fill its labour force needs. Advocates and economists say this creates a precarious workforce and can depress wage and working conditions for all employees.
The growth in temporary residents has been especially steep for students coming from abroad to study. Canada has become an increasingly sought-after destination for international students who often come with the intent of eventually obtaining permanent residency.
Fraser said he is working on improving pathways to permanency for international students as well as to undocumented people but would not give details.

At the job and skill summit in Canberra, Australia has announced to increase in the post-study work rights of graduates with most-sought after skills. This will allow graduates with particular bachelor’s degrees to stay in Australia for four years.

International students who have in-demand skills will soon be able to stay back and work in Australia for longer according to the recent changes announced on September 2, 2022, at the job and skill summit in Canberra. To tackle the labour shortage in Australia, the post-study work rights of students will be extended by two years who possess degrees that educate them with the most sought-after skills. The measure will allow graduates with particular bachelors degrees to stay in Australia for four years, masters degrees for five years and PhDs holders for six years.

It is not yet announced which degree programmes will get extended visas but a working group has been created to advise on which courses should get the extension. The country has huge vacancies in engineering, technology and nursing.

The group will be made up of members from Universities Australia, home affairs and education departments, the International Education Association of Australia and the National Tertiary Education Union.

Jason Clare, the education minister said that only 16% of the international students stay back after completing their education in Australia. Students can now stay back and help the country fill up vacancies in areas of chronic skill shortages.

Phil Honeywood, CEO of the International Education Association of Australia commented that the new federal government is attempting to restore the country’s inclusive and welcoming reputation. One of the measures in this regard is providing international students with a policy framework that students will be supported to learn, study and live in Australia.

Global vice president at Griffith University, Sarah Todd, that the university was delighted as the international students were recognised to play an important role in several sectors of the Australian economy. Prospective students will be able to rightly choose the courses and universities that would profit them most. Universities in Australia, according to her, must also focus on offering programmes in designated disciplines that will allow a smooth transition to employment in Australia.

The government has also announced that the working hours for international students will again be capped from June 2023 reversing the decision to remove the cap to get more working hours. This measure will be taken to strike the right balance between study and work.

Further, the government has announced to invest AUD 36.1 million in visa processing because of the delays hampering the international education sector.

Applications to UK universities are set to rise by nearly 50% within five years from international students, according to new figures from Ucas.

In a survey of more than 1,200 students across 116 countries planning to study internationally, factors such as global admiration of the NHS and the English language were important for those considering university in the UK.

Ucas forecasts that the volume of international undergraduate applicants will increase by 46% to 208,500 by 2026. The Ucas and College Board’s new report – Where Next? What influences the choices international students make? – shows that during the pandemic, 88% of students viewed the UK as either a positive or very positive place to study, while 77% said they were applying because of the country’s strong academic reputation.

Students from different countries had varying reasons for wanting to study abroad, with 80% of Nigerian students wanting to gain skills that would help them in their careers, while 75% of Indian students said that the most important factor in their decision were the « better quality » universities found abroad compared with those at home.

Students are also five times more likely to say securing a job in their destination country, rather than their home nation, is their top priority.

International students were also found to be highly independent, with over half saying their own research had informed their choice of country to study in, while just 1% referenced their teachers.

And around two thirds (69%) of international applicants applying to the UK say they are intending to self-fund, compared with 4% of domestic students.

They are also more likely to prioritise the university they wish to study at than their subject choice – 55% of international students enter high-tariff universities in the UK, 27 percentage points higher than UK students.

More than 70% of applicants who gain places from Singapore, China and Malaysia enter higher tariff universities in the UK.

In 2021, more than half of international students accepted through Ucas to study in the UK came from seven countries – China, India, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Portugal, the US and Ireland – with two in every nine coming from China. Nigeria, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have also seen a surge in applications to the UK in recent years.

Clare Marchant, Ucas chief executive, said: « International students are showing extraordinary resilience – the universal appeal of living and studying in another country continues. »

Despite the challenges of the pandemic, international students have pursued the opportunities available to them and we forecast sustained growth in interest to study in the UK to continue into the next decade.

Our findings from this joint research with College Board focus on international students’ mindsets and what they want from their higher education experience.

To continue to inspire and support international students to cross borders, the global higher education community should personalise applicants’ experiences, using information that’s relevant and useful for specific countries to share the outstanding opportunities on offer.

Linda Liu, College Board’s vice president of international, said, « As we are on the precipice of the world reopening, these results reaffirm the desire of so many students to study in another country. We see this desire manifest in our programs at the College Board, from the many students who want to send their SAT scores to universities outside of their home country to the record-setting number of students taking AP (Advanced Placement) exams outside the US. »

Keeping its promise of inviting more and more skilled workers and international students to the country, Canada has announced its intention to bring in a new permanent pathway programme for temporary workers and international students to become permanent residents.

Congruent with its aim to reach the permanent residency goal, Canada has announced that a new fast-track immigration programme for international students and temporary foreign workers is in the works.

According to Immigration Minister Sean Fraser, the new programme will be similar to the Temporary Residence to Permanent Residence (TR2PR) programme but not identical.

Last year, through the TR2PR programme, Canada was able to welcome 90,000 essential workers and international student graduates, Fraser stated. He further added that the country is now looking at creating a permanent pathway for temporary residents to achieve permanent residency.

As per a motion passed in the Canadian House of Commons, Fraser has been given 120 days to create and announce a strategy that leads to expanding the pathways to permanent residency for international students as well as temporary foreign workers. Fraser announced that further details of the new programme will be announced by September 8, 2022, the deadline he was given.

Based on the report published by CIC News, Canada will be inviting candidates of the Canadian Experience Class and the Federal Skilled Worker Programme to apply for permanent residency this July.
Additionally, the Bill C-19, currently passing through the Senate to become a law, will soon give authority to the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to invite Express Entry candidates in the pool depending on the economic goal including occupation, education credentials and the ability to communicate in French.
The authority will also put the responsibility of the public consultation process on the IRCC, to help them shortlist groups of Express Entry candidates to be invited to the draws. Moreover, an annual report must be presented to the Parliament discussing the economic goals sought during each draw.

Commenting on the best ways to become a temporary resident in Canada, CIC News stated that while candidates need not be in Canada to become eligible for an immigration programme, according to studies, immigrants with a Canadian experience are likely to receive better wages and employment opportunities in the initial years of migration. It further added that studying and working in Canada also open “doors to many more immigration programmes”.

By studying a full-time programme which is at least 8 months long, offered by a Designated Learning Institution in Canada, you can become eligible for a Post Graduation Work Permit (PGWP), subsequently attaining valuable Canadian work experience.

A consortium of four universities operating under the banner of Education Hungary have embarked on an aggressive student recruitment exercise across the African continent, marketing themselves as offering quality education at a fraction of fees charged by institutions in the UK, the Americas and Australia.

The consortium made up of the University of Pécs, the University of Debrecen, the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences (MATE) and the International Business School (IBS) is hosting at least one webinar a week.

The group is positioning Hungary and its universities as Eastern Europe’s choice destination due to the use of English as the language of instruction.

“Hungary is a great destination for African students because of affordability and low cost of living. Students are able to get world class education at very affordable fees. Hungary also has a rich history and culture, which students or even tourists, can have the opportunity to experience,” Caroline Kithama of the Africa Regional Office told The PIE News.

“The reception towards studying in Hungary, which was not a ‘traditional’ study destination, has been surprisingly, very welcoming and Education Hungary has made significant steps in marketing the country as a preferred study destination, in the Africa region. We believe in endless possibilities for our future,” she added.

The universities have an international student’s population of between 20-25%, from over 114 countries, and some 2,000 African students are studying at the institutions, she disclosed.

On its website the Education Hungary says that its universities have a combined student population of over 13,000 international students.

Nigeria is the fourth largest source of student interest for studying in Hungary, after India, Pakistan and Iran, according to European education advisory company Studyportals.

“When considering student interest to study in Hungary from the African continent alone, Nigeria accounts for 28% of student interest. Ghana, Egypt, Algeria and Morocco each make up about 10% of the interest from the continent,” Cara Skikne, senior editor at the company, told The PIE News.

On the other hand, most of the prospective students from Africa are interested in masters programs, Engineering and Technology, and Business Administration being the most popular disciplines, she added.

The country has been offering scholarships under the Stipendium Hungaricum scholarship program for Students at Risk Programme for students fleeing the war in Ukraine.

According to Kithama, the Stipendium Hungaricum Scholarships are also part of a bilateral agreement between some African countries and Hungary such as Kenya. Some 200 Kenyan students will leave for their studies in Hungary this September under the scheme. The scholarship covers tuition, a monthly stipend, accommodation and medical insurance.

As the US aims to climb back up as the most preferred destination for study abroad, another announcement regarding student visa approval has been made. New guidance to the consular officers has been made to make it easier for international students to receive their visas.

The US State Department has announced updated guidance to consular officers that is aimed at easing the process for international students to get their visas, as reported by Forbes. Before the new administration took over the Oval Office, officials from US universities raised complaints about students being denied visas after being misjudged with “immigrant intent” at US consulates. Berry Appleman and Leiden’s Lynden Melmed, commented that the move is “just common sense”. He added that while international students should show intent to depart from the country, the US consular officers should not make assumptions over the possibilities of the applicant’s future. As per media reports, several groups that have advocated for international education were satisfied with the move. Jill Allen Murray, Deputy Executive Director of public policy at NAFSA commented that consular officers should be able to consider the “inherent difference” between a “young F-1 visa applicant and more established short-term visa applicant”.

Jill added that NAFSA had laid down some key recommendations to the Department of State, which saw the restoration of the “helpful distinctions to the residence abroad requirement for F visa holders”. With the help of the new guidance, F-1 visa applicants will no longer be “penalised for not having the ties of property, employment and continuity of life”, which a short-term visa applicant would be expected to and capable of having.

The executive director of the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, Miriam Feldblum also displayed her agreement with the move, highlighting the Presidents’ Alliance’s stance on the change. She congratulated the Biden administration on taking the step and facilitating in “reinvigorating the international student mobility”.

According to the new guidance, “the context of the residence abroad requirement for student visas inherently differs from the context for B visitor visas or short-term visas”. Additionally, the statute outlines that the inherent natural conditions and circumstances of being a student do not disqualify a student from receiving their visa. As per media reports, a student not possessing any ties of property, employment or continuity of life is natural and common, since most students would commonly be single, unemployed and without property, often at a stage where they are deciding what to do with their lives.

The guidance also points out that the adjudication for a student visa becomes more complex since students need more time to complete their studies, compared to other international travellers. Therefore, judging a student’s present intentions, rather than what may happen in the future on completion of their programmes, should be considered when adjudicating an applicant.