1. British Council's GREAT Scholarships 2024 for Indian students enrolling in postgraduate studies in the UK start from autumn 2024. Each GREAT Scholarship unboxes support worth £10,000 or more, paid towards tuition fees for a one-year postgraduate course in the UK for the 2024-25 academic year. The scholarship is offered in partnership with the UK government’s GREAT Britain campaign. This year, 25 UK universities are offering 26 postgraduate GREAT scholarships to Indian students as part of the programme, across subjects from finance and marketing to psychology Design and dance. Additionally, for the 2024-25 academic year, there are four Science and Technology scholarships available across four UK universities. Indian students can for science and technology-related subjects such as artificial intelligence, sustainable engineering, and psychology, among others, at any of the participating higher education institutions.
2. Inlaks Shivdasani Scholarship offers eligible Indian students funding of $1 lakh (approximately Rs 82.97 lakh) to cover educational expenses, living costs, medical expenses, and a one-way flight ticket. Check the Foundation's website for age eligibility and other qualification criteria, and application dates for 2025. In 2024, the scholarship application period was open from February 6 to March 22. So far, the Foundation has supported around 500 scholars for overseas studies, and close to 1,000 students have benefited from awards and grants both in India and internationally.
3. Pearson's PTE Core English proficiency test for Canadian economic migration visa received approval from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) last year. First conducted on February 12, 2024, the 2-hour, computer-based exam tests four key English language skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. PTE Core is relevant for the vocational test takers, and the questions have a real-life, non-academic focus. Check Pearson's website to book an exam slot.
4. Duolingo English Test (DET) is accepted in 5,000 universities, for admissions to undergraduate and post-graduate programs across the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, Ireland, etc. The list of colleges that accept this English language proficiency test includes Imperial College London and the London School of Economics and Political Science in the UK and Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Berklee School of Music in the US.
5. Canada has updated norms for international students to qualify for Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP): The new Canadian Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) & Open Spousal Work Permit Eligibility rules will come into effect from September 1, 2024. Under the new rules, international students enrolled in a program that is part of a curriculum licensing arrangement will no longer qualify for a Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) upon graduation. Under curriculum licensing agreements, students physically attend a private college that has been licensed to deliver the curriculum of an associated public college. According to Immigration Refugees Citizenship Canada (IRCC), these programs have less oversight than public colleges.
Additionally, graduates of master’s degree programs will be eligible to apply for only three-year PGWP, irrespective of the length of an individual’s program of study.
6. Australia’s student visa approval rate hit a record low: Australian universities are reporting high volume of applications from international students in 2024. But the numbers of students going to Australia is expected to drop due to low visa approval rates for students. Student visa application approval rate stood at over 90 percent for 15 years prior to 2023. In the six months to December 2023, though, the approval rate fell to 82 percent overall, and to 70 percent for vocational education, according to new government data. The government is trying to reduce the number of migrants now. The country’s borders were opened in November 2021, post-Covid - it is now clamping down on entry by ‘non-genuine’ students.
7. University of Glasgow's £5,000 fee discount for Indian postgraduate students: University of Glasgow launched India Merit Award that covers programs in more than 150 subject areas across science and humanities earlier this year. Highly qualified students can get a £5,000 discount on their fee. The university is ranked 76th in the QS World University Rankings 2024. To qualify, students will have to demonstrate academic excellence equivalent to a UK first class honours in their degree.
8. University of Birmingham entered a partnership with Symbiosis International University to make it easier for Indian students to study for a postgraduate law qualification in the UK. SIU undergraduate law students can also apply for an exchange programme, to study in Birmingham for a period. The students will also be awarded special scholarships as part of the partnership, as well as enabling students to progress in their legal qualifications. The agreement covers SIU students who have successfully completed BA LLB or BBA LLB or second year of the three-year course and the fourth year of the five-year law programme.
9. A university course in AI, with the admissions process led by a robot in the metaverse? Admissions to Universal Ai University are done through the university's own metaverse called Eventuality. Here, a Droid gives candidates a virtual campus tour, oversees virtual interviews, and generates and reads out the results. The digitally led admissions process combines optimisation algorithms, crowd-generating tools, and visual-enhancing technologies. The hope is that the model could eventually transform traditional admissions.
10. Who is a digital nomad? Immigration Refugees Citizenship Canada (IRCC) this year provided clarification on the definition of digital nomad as a person who can perform his/her job remotely from anywhere in the world.
A digital nomad only needs visitor status to relocate to Canada for up to six months at a time. According to Canadian immigration, there should be no connection between his/her/their work and Canada – that is, the person should not be serving or working with Canadian clients nor a local office in Canada – to qualify as a digital nomad.
11. Samsung R&D Institute Bengaluru (SRI-B) has inaugurated the Samsung Innovation Campus programme at the KLE Institute of Technology (KLEIT), Hubli, with the aim to upskill youth in future technology domains. Engineers at Samsung R&D Institute, Bengaluru, will work on collaborative research projects with KLEIT students and faculty. Through this initiative, SRI-B plans to upskill approximately 100 students and professors per year at KLEIT. SRI-B is already working with four engineering colleges across Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, engaging more than 500 students on courses of Artificial Intelligence, Coding & Programming, IoT, and Big Data. Samsung has so far set up eight Samsung Innovation Labs in IIT-Delhi, IIT-Kanpur, IIT-Hyderabad, IIT-Kharagpur, IIT-Roorkee and IIT-Guwahati, IIITDM-Kurnool and IIT-Jodhpur as part of its Samsung Innovation Campus programme. So far, these labs have trained over 1,000 students.
12. The University of Birmingham has partnered with the Government of Maharashtra to set up a specialist Research and Innovation Hub. The aim is to tackle challenges in key state priority areas including agriculture and healthcare, using Artificial Intelligence (AI). Working with strategy partner Ernst&Young, the agreement brings together three state public universities: Kavayitri Bahinabai Chaudhari North Maharashtra University, Jalgaon; COEP Technological University, Pune; and Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, in the initial phase of the project. As part of this initiative, the Department of Higher and Technical Education has also constituted a Maharashtra Responsible Research and Innovation Taskforce (MSRRIT)
13. Pearson has partnered with University Living (UL), an online global student accommodation marketplace, to facilitate foreign accommodation, financial services, and logistics support for study-abroad aspirants in India. Through this partnership, Pearson and University Living will organise webinars, seminars, and campus visits for students. Pearson PTE test takers from India can also get some discounts, benefits, and assistance for global mobility like destination-specific promotions on accommodation and education packages for key markets like Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand.
14. Amid reports of a record decline in student visa approval rates for international students, Australian universities are asking some international students to withdraw their admission offers. Australia rejected 21 percent of the visa applications from international students in the second half of last year; 39 percent applications from Indian students were rejected. An email published in the Koala International Education News shows Wollongong University informing a student that they were ‘unlikely to meet the new criteria to obtain a positive visa outcome’, offering them two options: either withdraw their offer and receive a refund or defer their offer. As per the new regulations, students can only work up to 48 hours a fortnight. In addition, students will no longer be allowed to switch their enrolment from a high-cost to a low-cost college within the first six months of arriving in Australia.
15. 10 years of University of Chicago's Center in Delhi: Established in 2014 as a hub for teaching, research, and dialogue, the University of Chicago Center in Delhi has completed 10 years. The Center works towards fostering intellectual collaboration between UChicago and Indian institutions on diverse topics, from telecommunications systems to poetry. The 10th-anniversary celebrations began on February 16, and will end in September with a gala.
16. Switzerland has topped the list of the best education destinations for young HNWs, according to Henley & Partners: Switzerland has topped Henley & Partners’ new global ‘Opportunity Index’, which ranks the best destinations for High Net Worth (HNW) in terms of accessing the best education in the world – and the ease at which HNW individuals can move there and gain citizenship. An education in Switzerland, the US or Singapore — and relocating for the long term — could bring an ‘opportunity advantage’ to young HNWs, according to Henley & Partners new global ‘Opportunity Index’.
16. International staff and students feel unwelcome in the Netherlands – Survey: Most international students and staff in Dutch universities feel less welcome today than they did when they first arrived in the country, according to a survey conducted by six independent university newspapers and magazines – University Newspaper Groningen (UKrant), DUB Utrecht, VOX-Nijmegen (Radboud University), TU Delta at Delft University, Resource Wageningen and U-Today at the University of Twente. Conducted in November 2023, the survey included 1,330 international students and employees. According to the survey, 70 percent of students and staff members who responded had felt welcome or even very welcome when they first came to The Netherlands. That number has now dropped to 55 percent. About 50 percent of students and staff members said Dutch politics is increasingly negative about internationals.
17. New Zealand improves student visa processing: Immigration New Zealand (INZ) has improved the process for deciding student visa applications by giving their staff more efficient assessment tools and letter templates
18. Prime minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Rs 500-crore 200-acre Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Jammu campus on February 20, 2024. The government of India had established IIM Jammu in Jammu and Kashmir in 2016 and its off-campus at Srinagar was inaugurated on January 24, 2020. The new state-of-the-art campus in Jagti, 14 km from Jammu City, reflects the Institute's commitment to providing high-quality management education and fostering inclusivity.
19. Australia’s University of Canberra and Cricket ACT launched academy-style cricket coaching in India, to provide tailored teaching and coaching development sessions; training and playing tours for students. The partnership aims to bring an international perspective to cricket education in India, levelling the playing field especially for girls and women in cricket. This also opens up a ‘Study and play’ pathway for Indian students in Canberra.
20. First-year international students drive Germany’s enrolment growth. For the 2023-24 winter semester, Germany’s Federal Office of Statistics released preliminary figures that show that 402,617 individuals enrolled at a German university, which represents an increase of 1.1 percent. Most of the new students were from India (11,733), followed by China (5,661), with Indian figures on the rise during the past few years and Chinese figures gradually declining.
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