UK turns to Brazil for students

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM—Two British ministers are mounting an initiative in Latin America to try and attract potential students to the United Kingdom. Business secretary Vince Cable and university minister David Willetts are currently traveling to Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia to scope out the scene.

Universities in the United Kingdom have seen a huge drop in students coming from countries such as India, and this is blamed on much tighter student visas. Universities are increasingly reliant on income they get from non-EU students, and this drop has dealt a blow to universities in the country.

There has been much worry on a fall in international recruitment after a crackdown on immigration.

 Ministers are now turning to Latin America to attract students to come to study for an undergraduate or graduate degree in some of the United Kingdom’s world-leading universities. Vince Cable is visiting Brazil, and will highlight the success of the Science without Borders scheme, a Brazilian government scholarship program geared towards sending Brazilian students to higher education in different parts of the world.

The program will allow students to spend three months in industrial placements as part of a degree course. Over 1,100 undergraduates have benefited from the program.

Still, Brazilian students remain low in the number of students coming to the United Kingdom to study.

By: Julia Roake

Source: BBC

Image: BBC

22 April 2013

08:45am PDT