Sunder Singh is the executive director of the Elspeth Heyworth Centre for Women, an organisation that supports women in the Toronto community. She told The PIE News that Canada’s high cost of living paired with tuition fees have made female students enter the sex trade out of desperation. The PIE has also found numerous massage parlours that are advertising services from international students in the Greater Toronto Area. “Brampton is where we see the hub of exploitation happening,” Singh told The PIE. “The rents are very high here. The cost of living is extremely high and the students who are…

Australian universities must take care not to “revert back to revenue generation” as a focus of their internationalisation efforts, a Brisbane forum has heard. Rongyu Li, deputy vice-chancellor for global engagement at the University of Queensland (UQ), conceded that the sector would probably need to rely on international earnings “in the immediate short term” to rebuild its post-Covid stocks. “We really need to be careful not to get stuck in that space,” Mr Li told the THE Campus Live ANZ event at UQ. “Over the medium and longer term we really have to think about innovative ways of doing it,…

International students account for about 50 per cent of the migration intake this year.The rebound in migration is showing up strongly in official data, which reveal net inflows of 303,700 migrants in the 12 months to September 2022, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.Net migration turned negative in 2021 when Australia closed its borders and temporary residents returned home.The overwhelming driver of the recent increase in net overseas migration has been a rebound in the number of people living in Australia on student visas.Between March 2020 and December 2021, Australia experienced a net outflow of about 250,000 students, which…

UK universities should be closely monitoring the experiences of international students after a major survey found an uptick in the number of them expressing dissatisfaction with their courses, sector experts have warned. The Higher Education Statistics Agency (Hesa) Graduate Outcomes survey – published last week – found that the majority of graduates from UK universities view their outcomes positively, but there were slight changes in graduate perceptions compared with the last iteration of the study. Differences were sharper among international students, particularly those from outside the European Union, although Hesa cautioned that the response rate for this group halved in the past year following the decision to survey…

Opposition MPs emergency calls to stay deportation orders of scammed international students go unheeded – New Canadian Media Source

The government said it is “firmly committed” to meeting and sustaining the 600,000 international students per year, which the UK first achieved a decade ahead of schedule. The UK is “on track” to meet its £35 billion export ambition by 2030, given the country recorded £25.6bn in education exports in 2020, an increase of 0.8% since 2019. The government highlighted that from 2021, the average annual increase in export revenue of just over 3% per year is needed to meet the 2030 target. Growth in higher education exports was the main contributor, accounting for £19.5bn and transnational education saw “moderate growth” from £2.2bn in 2019 to £2.3bn in 2020.…

This is according to the country’s secretary of state Antony Blinken, whose speech was broadcast at the NAFSA conference in Washington DC this week. Blinken explained that international education is an important part of the US diplomacy and national security strategy. Supporting study abroad programs is a priority for the Biden administration, he detailed. “At the State Department, we are working to expand international education. After the acute phase of the Covid-19 pandemic ended, more and more international students began applying to study in the US again,” he said. “We took steps to streamline our visa process and make it easier for students…

It is also considering amendments to written agreements between students and institutions and the ESOS National Code, which is likely to see changes as a result of the upcoming migration review. Acting assistant secretary of the International Quality Branch in the Education Department’s International Division, Alison Cleary, outlined amendments the government is considering regarding international students at an event this week. Connecting student visas with institutions and English language proficiency are live discussions within the department. “Rogue or inappropriate” agent behaviour and possible changes to written agreements with international students are areas where officials are keeping a close eye and consulting with the…

Short on time? Here are the highlights: The US Department of Commerce announced this week that international education will be included as a priority sector in the forthcoming update to the US national export strategy This will translate into increased engagement with the sector across the US government, and especially in lead agencies such as the Department of Commerce, Department of Education, Department of State, and Department of Homeland Security The US Bureau of Economic Analysis, meanwhile, reports that education exports rose more than 17% in 2022 to reach nearly US$38 billion “The United States will be a better and…