Can a quarter-million of the world’s brightest students be wrong?
That’s one estimate of the number of foreign students who forsake the
comforts of home and brave the UK’s food and, for many, forbidding
weather to get the postgraduate education they consider the key to a
bright future in their homelands. The British Council puts the
total number of overseas students currently studying in Britain – at
all academic levels – at nearly one million, with two-fifths of
post-graduate students hailing from other countries. The British
government’s increasing recognition of the value of this phenomenon to
the British economy overall is likely to increase its efforts to
attract these students away from competing institutions in other
countries and to address the complex student-visa laws that most
overseas students cite as the greatest – and often the only –
disincentive to seeking graduate degrees in the UK. Studying in
the UK, rather than at comparable universities and colleges in other
countries, clearly remains the first choice of the largest segment of
the overseas student population. The principle reason can be
summed up in the single word the 23-year-old Uzbekistanian Tulkin
Sultanov gave the BBC as his reason for pursuing advanced studies in
the UK: “reputation.” Worldwide, UK universities are renowned for their
high academic standards, cutting-edge educational facilities
(particularly in the sciences, engineering and the arts), and broad
range of offerings combined with the flexibility to accommodate
individual student needs. Like many other students who eventually
go to the UK itself, Sultanov was educated in a British school in his
homeland. As a result, he said, he knew both that British teaching was
high-quality, that the professors at British universities had
international reputations as leaders in their fields – and, crucially,
that alumni of British universities enjoyed a level of professional
success on return to their homeland that made them the envy of their
generation. UK universities and colleges are continuously
evaluated by professional bodies to ensure that their teaching and
research standards and their facilities are at the highest standards.
The result has been the more important rating by the rest of the world,
which at this point assumes that any British post-graduate education is
top rank. Because standards are now known to be high at all levels, an
unrivaled prestige attaches to a master’s or doctoral degree earned at
a British university. Of the half-million Chinese students
studying abroad annually, some 50,000 have chose the UK as their
academic destination of choice, together spending an estimated £550m a
year on their UK educations. Twenty-two-year-old Lin Disheng, a Chinese
student featured in another BBC story, followed his BS degree from
Nottingham University (where he earned first-class honors in e-commerce
and digital business) with a master’s degree programme at Oxford.
Citing China’s rapid industrialisation and economic growth, he told the
BBC, “Chinese young people like me want to make a contribution to this
rapid process. That's why I want to study In the UK - to learn better
western technologies and experience the western culture and do the best
I can.” It goes without saying that the students who are accepted
into British universities are the top students of their home countries’
top universities. Still, for most, what amplifies the education they
received at home can be summed up in the three words independence,
creativity and self-reliance. These are not only qualities they pick up
at the personal level – although the mere process of adapting to, and
then succeeding in, a culture often significantly unlike their own
gives them a level of self-confidence they might well not even need in
their homelands. More to the point, a UK graduate education
teaches foreign students a kind of independent thinking, creativity
with ideas (most conspicuous in artistic disciplines but as evident in
disciplines such as business and politics – “thinking outside the box”
– and even science. Most foreign student have come from academic
environments that have emphasized rote learning and, with the best of
intentions, the dutiful regurgitation to their professors of the
teachers’ own ideas. Only in an environment that both fosters and
teachers ways of independent thinking do students learn how to generate
their own ideas, propose and test original solutions to problems, and
trust their own creative impulses. British universities also
offer well-recognised value for money. Undergraduate degree programmes,
for example, are typically spread over three rather than four years,
and most master’s degree programmes are designed to be completed in one
year. This makes them highly cost-effective when compared to the longer
time it takes to complete comparable courses of study in other
countries, particularly in the US. Also, scholarships and other forms
of financial aid make it possible to for many foreign students to enter
institutions they would not be able to attend on their own or their
families’ resources. Personal support in gaining access to such
assistance, overseen by highly trained university administration
staffs, helps many foreign students navigate that thicket of
qualifications that sometimes discourage them from pursuing this vital
source of financial help. Furthermore, access to
government-funded health care contributes greatly to the financial
advantages of studying in the UK. Students in any full-time course in
Scotland and in full-time courses lasting at least six months in
England, Wales or Northern Ireland are entitled to free medical
treatment from the British National Health Service. Another
advantage of study in the UK is that some students can, if they must or
wish, work while they are pursuing their degrees. Because they are from
outside the EU, students who are registered is a course of study longer
than six months can work as much as 20 hours a week during term time
and full-time during holidays. Students who need to supplement their
finances to live as well as study abroad will be happy to know that
part-time work is easy to find. Others may find working part-time a
valuable way of learning more about the local culture outside the
confines of academe. The UK also offers a unique variety of
graduate academic settings. In addition to the universities and
colleges ensconced within Britain’s bustling, dynamic cities – which
include far more places than London, though the capital is unrivaled
for its academic, cultural, and other offerings – students can choose
to study on purpose-built countryside campuses, often in areas of
singular natural beauty as well. While some foreign students
understandably want the programmes as well as the prestige of Britain’s
famous, time-honored seats of higher education, others prefer the more
modern, state-of-the-art universities that have sprung up throughout
the country, sometimes with specific academic specialisations,
sometimes offering a full range of post-graduate programmes. Indeed,
exposure to the larger culture is, though often overlooked during
considerations of where to study abroad, one of the strongest reasons
for choosing the UK as a place to pursue an advanced degree. Exploring
the country beyond the university campus is sure to strengthen English
skills and, more to the point, it does not require learning yet another
language beyond the international language of English that has become
the worldwide academic norm. In addition to the native, local,
and popular cultures, Britain offers some of the richest examples of
Western culture to be found anywhere in Europe – and not just in
London. Although London plays second fiddle to no other city in Europe
in terms of its cultural offerings of all kinds, there are also
significant cultural centres and events in other UK cities, such as
Birmingham, which has one of the world’s greatest symphony orchestras,
and Edinburgh, a city with an extraordinarily rich year-around cultural
life and a summer festival of all the arts that is one of the world’s
most renowned. British museums also are considered among the world’s
finest. For the more adventuresome, the rest of Europe is
literally at the doorstep of people living in the UK. There are
affordable ways to travel to the other countries of Europe –
particularly for students – with resulting close, easy access to a
broad array of other Western cultures, people, and traditions. But
even students who find study so demanding that it keeps them close to
home and allows them little time for travel will be grateful to be
“confined” to a country as famously beautiful as the UK. The British
countryside, villages, and beaches are famous worldwide for their
surpassing beauty. Travel within the country is inexpensive and fast,
allowing most visiting students ample opportunities to explore the UK’s
riches beyond its university walls. Whatever your motives for
choosing to study in the UK – and whatever you do to enhance your
academic experience while there – you can be sure of one thing. When
you return home, everyone will be impressed that you earned your degree
in a country known throughout the world for the high quality of its
educational offerings. And, with a British degree in your pocket (and
brain), you’ll be in a prime position to compete for your country’s
best jobs – and find the most satisfying way to take part in a
globalised world you have yourself encountered. Hugh O’Connell is a business owner and university lecturer. He is a director of
Plan-it Consultants Limited, Thailand and UniRoute Limited, Hong Kong. Plan-it
provides off line resources to students wishing to study overseas:
study abroad
program. UniRoute offers online advice on
study abroad and
study UK. Currently Hugh resides in Thailand and is working towards his doctorate.
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