Study abroad in Australia, Britain and Sweden

At the same time that the number of university students who study abroad continues to climb, a few countries have moved to put up barriers to entry. Three nations Australia, Britain and Sweden have made access to their highly attractive higher education systems more difficult for foreigners. Britain and Australia are adjusting visa and immigration policies, while Sweden will, for the first time in modern history, charge tuition for some foreign students.

The moves have led some educators, students and politicians in those countries to warn that having fewer international students would not only hurt the academic prestige of educational institutions, but also their pocketbooks.In Britain, a parliamentary committee report published on March 17 warned that any new visa caps could seriously damage the UK’s higher education industry and international reputation.Despite the criticism surrounding the announcements and a decline in the number of international students in Australia, there is no universal agreement on the long-term effects the changes will have on global education.Students can also get a lot of exposure while studying in such universities and different course Global Production Engineering,Internet MBA and Materials Science.

The most recent action occurred in Britain, where the Home Secretary, Theresa May, announced on March 22 new rules that will cut student visas by up to 80,000 a year, or almost a quarter of the total granted annually in previous years. The rules, which also include a more stringent English-language requirement, will be rolled out this year and should be fully in place by April 2012.The new rules are part of an effort in Britain to stop fictitious colleges and students from exploiting student visas to avoid regular immigration procedures. “We are tightening up the system, tackling the abuse and supporting only the most economically beneficial migrants,Ms. May told Parliament when announcing the changes.

According to Universities UK, an association that represents British university administrators, educational institutions benefit not just by attracting top talent, but also by earning a portion of the estimated £5 billion, or $8 billion, that international students spend in Britain during such educational exchanges.University and College Union , Britain’s largest union for higher education professors and staff, warned in a statement released March 17 of knee-jerk populist policies that will deny our universities billions of pounds.Once the actual rules were announced, some opponents said they were resigned to the changes, while others, like Universities UK, vowed to work with the Home Office to ensure that the 80,000-visa reduction would not affect the ability of British universities to attract high-quality foreign students.

Meanwhile, in Sweden, which according to government figures hosts some 42,200 foreign undergraduate and master’s degree students foreign doctoral students are not counted separately from Swedish students, the government has announced that it will stop subsidizing the education of non-European Union foreign students starting this autumn. Long known for offering a free post-secondary education, Swedish universities will introduce fees for foreign students from outside the Union, with prices for a two-year master’s program running an average of roughly 229,100 Swedish krona, or $36,325.We want to make sure that people study here because of the high-quality education, not because it’s free,” Elin Boberg, press secretary to Jan Bjorklund, the Swedish minister of education, said.

Though the fees are not yet in place, officials say that their announcement has already had an effect. The Swedish government has released figures showing that 13,408 foreign students have been accepted to study for undergraduate or master’s level degrees in the autumn of 2011, just 55 percent of the number of students admitted for study in the autumn of 2010. Of those accepted to begin study this autumn, 75 percent would have to pay the new tuition fees.

Dr. Andreas Schleicher, education policy advisor to the secretary general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, said that for years free post-secondary education was part of Sweden’s social contract. Universities were subsidized by the state, but many foreign scholars stayed on, providing the country with talent and a tax base that made the state’s investment worthwhile.They could be hurting themselves,Mr. Schleicher said of the decision to impose the new fees. Sweden might end up paying for this.Blerim Shaqirvela came to Lund University in Sweden last autumn to pursue a master’s degree at the School of Economics and Management. Mr. Shaqirvela, a 26-year-old Macedonian, now thinks he will have to take a part-time job to help pay for tuition.Had I known that they would charge tuition, I would have definitely applied somewhere else,he said.