A new US immigration rule will prevent foreign students from entering the United States if their planned program of study transitions to online delivery for the fall 2020 semester. Similarly, students already in the country may be required to depart if their programs move to online instruction.
On 6 July, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced a rule change setting out “temporary exemptions for nonimmigrant students taking online classes due to the pandemic for the fall 2020 semester.” READ MORE
A US based education group and academic consultancy PRODIREKT, which also owns the Verbalists Language Network, has partnered with the leading education event organizer Advent Group to promote their Access MBA and Access Masters tours. Access MBA and Access Masters tours represent a series of events that take place in over 55 cities around the world. The tours bring together elite international business schools and high-caliber candidates. READ MORE
A new study from AFS Intercultural Programs provides some fresh insights into the perspective of younger millennials on study abroad.
Mapping Generation Z: Attitudes Toward International Education Programs surveyed 5,255 students in 27 countries between March and December 2016. The survey finds that six in ten Gen Z respondents – that is, those aged 13-to-18 years old – have considered study abroad. With some variation by home country, between 57% and 75% indicated that their main motivation in going abroad was to seek out new cultural experiences. READ MORE
With international students paying up to three times as much in tuition as in-state residents, public research universities in the United States are increasingly turning to foreign student recruitment to offset cuts in state support for higher education.
The number of international students in the US has increased more than 40% in the last decade. In 2015/16, international student enrollment in America surpassed the one-million mark for the first time. With foreign student numbers now at an all-time high, international education has become a big business in the US. NAFSA estimates that international students contributed US$33 billion to the US economy in 2016, while supporting more than 400,000 jobs. READ MORE
In the course of examining world markets for student housing and housing investment, global real estate services firm Savills has arrived at an interesting analysis of relative cost of study for major cities around the world.
Let’s first acknowledge that comparing costs of study is always a tricky business. Currency values never stop moving around each other, “apples-to-apples” comparisons among institutions and programmes can be elusive, and some of the sharp differences in costs between major cities and smaller towns often get smoothed out into national averages.
That’s in part what makes the Savills estimates noteworthy. They are focused on larger cities, where international enrollment is often concentrated. They also look exclusively at the relative costs of purpose-built student housing (PBSH), and at the tuition costs for non-specialist STEM degree programmes (e.g., mathematics) at institutions ranked in the top tier of the QS global rankings.
Savills has rendered all of those costs in a common currency – US$ – and has arrived at a summary of average monthly costs of being an international student in 23 major world cities. READ MORE
As part of our commitment to quality educational experiences, PRODIREKT would like to inform our students and prospective clients of important changes in the SEVP policy. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) now requires international students to meet all admission requirements including English Language proficiency validated by TOEFL or IELS scores.
Colleges and universities may no longer issue Form I-20 (Certificate of Eligibility for Non-immigrant Status) with the disclaimer “English Language is not required because it will be taught at the school” for degree programs. These schools can only issue I-20s for degree programs after English proficiency has been confirmed. (If the College or University offers English language training the program must be independent accredited from the academic college degree programs). READ MORE
