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Overseas students shun UK and US universities

The market share of international students enjoyed by British and US universities has dropped sharply as Australia, Japan and New Zealand become increasingly popular destinations, according to an international comparison of education systems published yesterday.

The latest edition of Education at a Glance, an annual audit published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, showed that although foreign students continue to be attracted to the two countries because of the English language teaching and perceived quality of education, in relative terms their position is weakening.

The Paris-based organisation reported that US market share fell 2 per cent from 2002-3, while the UK suffered the fastest decline among OECD members, falling from 16.2 per cent in 1998 to 13.5 per cent in 2003.
The most recent year used by the report is 2003 so the percentages did not include a 21.3 per cent fall in the number of Chinese students accepted for university courses in Britain this year. Britain is increasingly reliant on the higher fees paid by students from outside the European Union to help sustain its universities for domestic students.

The overall number of students studying outside their own countries stood at 2.1m in 2003, an 8.3 per cent annual average increase since 1998.

According to the report the international complexion of US campuses has changed strikingly since September 11 2001. The country’s universities have seen decreases of 10-37 per cent in students from the Gulf states, northern Africa and some south-east Asian countries.

The report also concluded that despite continued, if uneven, growth in the number of graduates churned out by the rich world’s universities, the monetary value of a degree showed no sign of having been tarnished.

Andreas Schleicher, head of the Indicators and Analysis Division of the OECD’s Directorate of Education, said there was no evidence of “inflation” of the labour-market value of qualifications and that graduates could expect to continue to earn considerably more than those without a degree.

Assessing the performance of the world’s schools, Mr Schleicher said Asia was “soaring” while Europe remained level and South America had slipped into relative decline.

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