Tag: canadauniversities

A Look Before You Leap

Recovering from the gluttony of Christmas dinner and resolving to resist the lure of nibbling on leftovers is a little like universities making new year resolutions to be slightly less greedy and indiscriminate about international student recruitment.  We all know that it makes sense to lose the excess pounds, focus on high quality, nourishing food, and cease acting with the incaution of a drunken sailor.  But the temptation of finishing the mince pies, the bottle of egg nog and the turkey sandwiches, while avoiding the gym is sometimes overwhelming.

Maybe that’s why it’s up to Governments to decide who has been naughty or nice and who deserves a visit from the Ghost of Christmas 2024.  The last few months of 2023 saw a lot of political posturing and positioning in the four main recruiting countries and the impact of some changes are already being felt.  A quick look at the implications suggests that for the big four recruiting countries international recruitment at the latter end of 2024 will be a Nightmare Before Christmas for some but a Miracle on 34th Street for others.

The good news for student recruiters is that it’s a leap year so they have a whole extra day to work out their response.1

United Kingdom

The gift of post-study work in September 2019 gave UK universities the keys to the student recruitment larder but they appear to have been caught eating too much low-quality pie.  This has left the sector vulnerable to Government action and it is likely to find the coming recruitment cycle difficult.  Enroly Data Insights in November 2023 indicated “..overall deposit payments are down by 52%, CAS issuance is down by 64% and visa issuance is down by 71% when compared to January 2023.”  While the year-on-year comparison has its limitations there seems little doubt that changes in Government visa policy on dependents is already biting.

News in early December that a review of the Graduate Route to “prevent abuse” and “protect the integrity and quality of the UK’s outstanding higher education sector” may not augur well for the medium term either.  Although the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) is not likely to report on the issue until near the end of 2024, when a general election is either under way or already over, one suspects that any new Government, will accept its recommendations. MAC recommended against the graduate route before it was introduced and there is no reason to believe they won’t do so again.

MAC’s starting point seems clear from the Annual Report 2023 where it notes that there are “..a very different set of students accessing the route than might have been expected based on student patterns in 2019 when the route was announced.”  The largest growth has been “predominantly been in institutions that charge the lowest fees” and “been strongest at the less selective universities”.  Anyone who understands international recruitment would have predicted these outcomes and it is quite extraordinary that Government supporters of the Graduate Route did not understand these as likely outcomes.  

A possible saviour for the current length of post-study work visa might be that the recent restrictions on dependents make a serious enough dent in international student numbers before the main intake in autumn 2024.  Aligned with an unwillingness to invest further in the higher education sector this could find the narrow path that allows the next Government to see how net migration figures play out for at least another year before imposing further constraints.  One suspects, however, that the ideological setting of MAC will demand more in terms of quality recruitment and a requirement to move to a different visa after study.      

Canada

The growth in Canada’s international student recruitment numbers has been remarkable.  According to Erudera, study permit holders nearly doubled from 2016 (410,570) to 2022 (807,750) with international students in tertiary education increasing by around 150,000 from 2015/16 (228,924) to 2020/21 (373,599).  The strength of recruitment from India has been a feature of the market for many years so it was well placed to capitalize on the boom of recent years.

Many observers would reflect that the magnitude of the growth has come at a cost to processes and reputation.  Claims of “bureaucratic mismanagement” were being called out as long ago as 2017 and there have been reports of universities accepting 99% of international students who apply and/or having visa rejection rates around 80%.  Issues around aggregator platforms allowing institutions to absolve their responsibilities for agents and the sheer volume of applications causing delays in visa processing or allowing fraudulent applications through have also been prominent.      

It does look as if the Canadian federal government has responded to the various scandals around students starving, dying and being misled about their study choices but in the wrestling match with powerful provinces it is difficult to see a comprehensive response taking hold. One response to a possible international enrolment cap was from Alexandre Lahaie, a spokesperson for Quebec’s Immigration Ministry saying that “Quebec does not intend to impose a cap on the number of foreign students in its jurisdiction…..Although issuing study permits is the responsibility of the federal government, education is the exclusive power of Quebec,”.  The pace of change can be slow as reflected by the cost-of-living financial requirement for students going up recently for the first time since the early 2000s.

While the IRCC has signalled a new Trusted Institution framework in 2024 and the International Education Strategy is due a refresh in mid-2024 experts reflect that this is a “challenging policy area”.  It is difficult to see that a minority Government facing an election no later than October 2025 is likely to want to upset the apple cart, particularly when some suggest Prime Minister Trudeau’s own role as party leader is under scrutiny.  One suspects that any changes to policy on international student recruitment in 2024 will be about tidying up around the edges and minimizing friction rather than significantly reducing intakes.

Australia

While the Australian government has rattled its sabre over the issues of international student recruitment the smart money seems to be on plenty of light touch regulation and monitoring along with touches on the tiller for employability without significantly damaging intakes.  The Australian Migration Strategy released in December 2023 looked a pretty nuanced document that provides plenty of space to “…lift the standards for international students and education providers while ensuring graduates help meet skills shortages and do not become permanently temporary.”

Study Australia leapt on the Strategy to suggest a join up between clear post study pathways, genuine student requirement, requirements on education providers and high-quality education agents.  By maintaining special initial stay periods for Indian nationals they have kept faith with a key market while setting IELTS at 5.5 for university foundation and pathway programs at the same time as moving levels for Temporary Graduate and Student visas upwards balances access with quality.

In contrast to the UK and Canada there seems to be a coherence in the Migration Strategy which respects the strength of its higher education sector as a critical part of national branding and infrastructure while addressing issues in the private VET sector where some “have systematically exploited Australia’s education system and broken migration law.”  Issues of graduate employability are addressed with the responsibility of institutions being noted and a study commissioned “..to better analyse international student outcomes and pathways into the labour market, with deep tripartite consultation of unions, employers, and training and education providers.”

Some are concerned that the measures put in place to date will have a dampening impact on recruitment but the sense is of a more reassuring picture than that being offered by the UK.  Placed alongside some speculation that the Canadian juggernaut might be losing pace this is likely to make the Australian picture pretty benign for international students.  2024 looks like it should be another good year. 

United States of America

For the growing sending markets the USA is a highly desirable country with a well-regarded higher education sector.  There is also every sign that US universities seeking to increase international recruitment have upped their game in terms of focus, competitive awareness and professionalism.  Even the Government has played its part with exceptional numbers of visas processed in 2023, amendments to H-1B visas and steps towards modernizing the visa process more generally.

The India numbers were material in driving international enrolments in Fall 2023 and the chief executive of the Institute of International Education was positively gleeful in suggesting, “Made in the USA is something that these students and families want on their diplomas.”  It should be very difficult to be negative about the potential for the US to substantially grow international enrolments in 2024.  The real question is what might disturb that and what might happen next.

A presidential election in November 2024 already has some pundits claiming that a re-election for Donald Trump would lead to, “A mass deportation operation. A new Muslim ban. Tariffs on all imported goods and “freedom cities” built on federal land.”  Study Portals data from 2016 suggests that more than 50% of international students were “far less likely” to study in the US than they were before Trump’s election.  It is difficult to see why the outcome would be any different in the coming year.

Trump’s views on higher education institutions suggest there may be even wider implications for the sector.  The noise around the election is bound to rise and the rhetoric is almost certain to ramp up in a way that begins to make alternative countries look a more stable option.  Relationships with India could also become a bit sticky if the threatened “retribution” on reciprocal taxation looks like becoming a reality.

Summary

The world offers many options delivering courses in English and most are finding ways of making post-work study a possibility with some going further in terms of possible routes to citizenship.  In the face of uncertainty many agents and students have a tendency to consider their options and look for the route of least resistance to meet their needs.  The evidence of the past few years is that options are kept open and decisions can be delayed for much longer than ever used to be the case.

We also seem to be seeing Governments viewing higher education and its capacity for international recruitment as a work-force planning component in the face of changing population demographics.  While university leaders are quick to proclaim quality education as the key driver of global interest there is growing evidence that low cost, post graduate employability and routes to citizenship are much more important for the growing markets.  All this at a point when the enthusiasm for university education is under pressure from disenchanted youth, apathetic public and cash-squeezed Governments.

More than ever before there is a need for joining up the dots in the way that the Australian Migration Strategy seems to do (although everyone recognizes that implementation is something different).  The UK seems to lurch from policy to policy without much apparent insight into the consequences and Canada appears to be slow moving and in thrall to competing interests across Federal and Provincial governments.  The US runs the risk of finding its historical attraction and dominant position undermined by more nimble players while internal, political factionalism prevents any realistic hope of long-term, strategic planning for growth.     

Notes

  1.  Royal Museums Greenwich tell us that “the first leap year in the modern sense in Britain was 1752, when 11 days were ‘lost’ from the month September with the adoption of the Gregorian calendar by Britain and her colonies. After 1752 we adopted the system still in use today where an additional day is inserted in February in years wholly divisible by four, other than years ending in 00 with the exception of those divisible by 400 which are still leap years (like 2000).”  

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

Brass in Yocket for Aggregator Founders*

Having recently delved into ApplyBoard and Study Portals it was Yocket’s turn to go under the computer mouse.  Reportedly, started in 2012 with $136USD (less than £100GBP) the company claimed over $1m revenue in 2020 and a plan to get to over $10m in three years.  Various internet searches have not found references to other external funding in support of the company, so it looks like the founders are backing themselves. 

Described as a ‘one stop study abroad solution’ Yocket focuses on candidates from India and suggests it has registered more than 400,000 since 2015. The company name is a word play on the company being a ‘rocket’ for students to meet their aspiration.  It claims to have ‘tied-up’ with over 100 universities in the UK, US, Canada and Australia although the nature of the engagement and the split by country are not transparent.  Yocket is part of Avocation Education Services Private Limited (Avocation) which also owns Stupidsid** which was also started by the founders.

Yocket’s model would appear to be focused on being a ‘student aggregator’ making money by selling added value services rather than an ‘agent aggregator’ trying to attract recruitment agents. There is a clear attempt to build a revenue stream from universities but this appears to have had limited success with only 42 in the ‘Apply through Yocket’ list and limited institutional activity on the site. Before universities go rushing in to fill that void they may want to consider some features of the site and what their brand will be associated with.

Data Management and Use     

One of the emerging concerns about aggregator sites is their use of data and Yocket’s site demands an email as the price of doing any search and engages the user in giving more personal details at every opportunity.  An email, phone number and other details allows you to set up an account and “By creating an account you agree to Yocket’s Terms of use and Privacy policy.  Attempts to click on the links to read these take the user on a circular route back to the initial sign on page which may be a glitch but is unhelpful. 

However, the Privacy Policy is available through an internet search and is the same as that of Avocation in giving broad opportunities for the use of data, such as making it available to ‘third party service providers’ as well as to advertisers including financial services.  It notes that ‘Avocation Educational Services Private Limited’ reserves the right to update, change or modify this policy at any time.’  The Terms of Use can also be found and note that, “It cannot be guaranteed that the material, information, links, and content presented on and by this website is comprehensive, complete, accurate, sufficient, timely, or up to date for any particular purpose or use.” 

Given that students going to the site are expecting accurate and comprehensive information about any country that they hope to study in this seems problematic.  The information provides the basis for the potential student spending money on other services, such as Yocket Premium or finding a loan, so there should at least be some sense of responsibility.  As the test searches outlined below suggest, there is some way to go before the information available provides full confidence.

In Search of Substance 

A search for universities in the UK provided a list of 124 institutions – well short of the number of degree-awarding institutions in the country.  The opportunity to search by private universities only provided information on Ecole de Management de Normandie, Oxford and Arden University.  There was no mention at all of sector notables such as BPP and the University of Law (one of Arden’s siblings in the Global University Systems family).

Oddities in the UK public university listings included:

–  Northumbria (Amsterdam) listed as one of the three for the institution.                

–  Nottingham Trent, Aston and Birmingham each having two locations listed             

– University of Buckingham, a private university, appears in the list of public universities

The listing of each institution comprised a fuzzy photo of something that looks like a university with the university logo superimposed on top of it.  Adding to the general sense of low-resolution and compromise on detail is that 12 of the universities had no logo shown and 47 of the universities had no indicative tuition fee shown.  That might be a blessing for anyone interested in accuracy and quality of information.

There is a feature which allows a search by Low, Medium or High Price and this has several anomalies.  The most obvious shows Kings College London as having an international tuition fee of £9,250.  A fee of £20,790 for classroom based international undergraduate students appears to be the starting point at this venerable London institution. 

Thirty institutions are listed in the Medium price sector but only one makes it to be shown as High Price.  The University of Bristol occupies this category with a tuition fee that the site suggests is £72,000 when the university’s published undergraduate classroom based BSc is 20,100 and an MSc in Management at £26,500.

The low-priced list did not include the University of Chester which has a rate of £12,750 for international students which is lower than the £13,000 shown (correctly) for Teeside University. All of this suggests that AI or machine learning is being used to find information on university sites it needs some fine tuning. If it’s human research then the quality control needs to be stepped up. It’s currently misleading to students and potentially damaging to university recruitment hopes.

Going to North America

The search for top universities in the USA offered up 242 universities with Harvard, MIT and Stanford at the top but one for “popular universities” listed 659 with Northeastern, Texas A&M and University of Texas at Dallas at the top.  The first two are among those among the 42 listed on the Apply to Universities via Yocket page which suggests there may be a closer relationship between institution and aggregator.

Perhaps surprisingly given the world rankings, Canada has 194 ‘top universities’ listed which is exactly the same as the number shown as ‘popular’.   The University of British Columbia Vancouver and the University of Western Ontario are at the top of both lists but there is no description of how a university gets on one or the other list.  Neither university is on the 42 listed on the “Apply to Universities via Yocket” page.

Generally speaking, the pictures and the logos for the USA and Canada are in better shape than those for the UK.  The site also provides further counselling if you are “Confused about which country to pick?” but this requires upgrading to Yocket Premium.  The paucity of filters to offer comparisons make it difficult to make any sort of well-informed choice without taking that step.    

Clicking through to the university page from the search does give the added information about how many ‘Yocketers’ have applied and how many have been accepted as well as their average GRE quant score.  There’s also some information on scholarships available.  Just out of interest the claim is that 99 have applied to Harvard’s School of Engineering with 17 admitted and 222 have applied to MIT’s School of Engineering with 14 admitted.  Whether or not they chose to use Yocket’s other services or counselling is not made clear.

Further Insights

The application to universities service is currently limited to 42 institutions with only the universities of Wolverhampton, Sheffield, Huddersfield and Essex listed for the UK.  These universities do not appear to receive special treatment in other search facilities on the site and the nature of the relationship is unclear.  A 5 May 2020 blog post on the site in the Applying to Universities section indicates a session with University of Essex where participants may receive an “on the spot offer” depending on eligibility.

In answering the question Why Should I Choose Yocket?  the company says that it has “..been a helpful companion to 300,000+ study abroad aspirants since 2016. Through a powerful network of students and machine learning algorithms, yocket empowers you to make informed decisions to your educational pursuits.”  The critical question for many observers might be whether or not the platform and its current capabilities is enabling sufficient information for an informed decision.

An interesting feature and highly relevant given the power of peer-to-peer recommendations is the ‘Trending Yocketers’ section which allows direct connection to a candidate who is looking to study at a specific university.  This is supplemented by a Discussions thread where candidates can pose questions in the hope that a peer will respond. 

Yocket may be planning to upgrade the site in the near future. A blog on 27 April invites interest from users willing to participate in the Yocket Hydrogen Beta version.  It is described as “an upgraded platform that is better in design, experience and features”.  With the anticipated growth in India students travelling abroad to study this would seem a reasonable investment. 

Some Thoughts

Yocket’s story is well known and it has recently announced plans to recruit 300 more staff in 2021 and a further 1,000 over three years.  It has presented itself as enhancing student services in a disorganized market dominated by agents, where students were often misguided.  It is reasonable to believe that the development of an online service provides access to more people but this, in itself, does not mean that students are better advised or informed.

It is difficult to know how the information about universities is being gathered and the extent to which it is verified to allow reasonable comparisons.  Whether the other Yocket services – such as premium service at a reported £500 per student – gives well-founded counselling is also hard to know.  The company’s 7th Annual Virtual Meet Up in March 2021 claims to have gathered 40 universities from the US, UK, France and New Zealand and over 4,000 students, so the demand would seem to be there.

From the point of view of institutions news stories have indicated that universities can get directly involved for between $1,000 and $10,000 dollars.  This gets access to services that reach out to students in a growing market and may be tempting.  Institutions who choose to engage might consider learning how data is used and the terms under which additional services, particularly loans, are being offered.      

There are also questions about the levels of transparency, the comprehensiveness of coverage and the quality of information available.  For universities who have not given permission for their brands to be used it may be time to consider whether the format and presentation is acceptable and they should certainly check the details given about them.  Aggregators are using university names and logos as bait for students and then selling other services so it would be reasonable to take an assertive stance.

The overall impression is that Yocket started as a page allowing students to exchange information about universities and has become a business operating in one of the fastest growing student recruiting markets in the world.  The founders have commented extensively on their desire to ensure a more accessible and better organized service for students than they believe many recruitment agents have offered.  These are fine principles but operationalizing them probably requires more attention to detail than is currently evident on the site.  

NOTES

1.  *For those unfamiliar with popular music “Brass in Pocket” is a 1979 single by The Pretenders.   Apparently, lead singer Chrissie Hynde overheard someone enquiring if anyone had, “Picked up dry cleaning? Any brass in pocket?”  Brass is Northern English slang for money but is used idiomatically in several other ways including “brass neck” to mean showing a lot of nerve.

** Stupidsid.com started in February 2010 as a college review website with students’ opinions on colleges, courses and universities. It has developed to provide Study Resources (including solved question papers, university syllabuses and previous questions) and Knowledge Hub (claimed to be the “largest database of engineering-related information you’ll ever come across.”)

2. Searches were carried out on various browsers over the period from 13 to 17 May.

Image by WikiImages from Pixabay