Admissions of foreign students in Scotland have registered an all-time high rate this year, reveal figures released by UCAS.
Figures indicate a steep hike of nine percent (9%) from last year, with over two thousand three hundred students hailing from non-European Union (EU) countries receiving admissions in Scottish universities. This suggests that Scotland continues to give other nations a run for the money when it comes to being a preferred higher education destination in the world.
The probable causes for increased admissions of foreign students in Scotland
Lately, Pound has not been able to put up a good show against the US dollar. And while it contributes to the already existing worries of investors around the globe about the UK’s economy, for its education sector though, it means potential international students being lured into the region, in the wake of scaled-down tuition fees, according to experts.
Another spokesperson from Universities Scotland states that the surge can be attributed to overly sophisticated recruitment drives and marketing strategies that have managed to captivate the international audience to a large extent. Universities in Scotland have earned a name for themselves in the global education map, he contends.
Meanwhile, with an approaching Brexit deadline, EU student admissions at Scotland’s nineteen prestigious universities have taken a hit by five percent (5%), and the accession rate for the native Scottish students have dropped by four percent (4%), since 2018. Additionally, the number of eighteen-year-old students in Scotland universities declined by three percent (3%).
Plummeting native admission rates versus foreign students in Scotland
The news announcement coincides with the much-awaited Scottish exam results, which showcased excellent performance from students taking National 5s, however, slight dismay for Highers’ applicants. Following the results, over twenty-eight thousand students already secured their university admissions.
Director of the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI), Nick Hillman, strongly urges the UK education sector to pull their socks as the plummeting admission rates for native students only manifests the greater need for higher-education skills set.
Commenting on the soaring interests from international students, he asserts that it is a consequence of the debilitated state of the pound and a demonstration of top of the line education level in Scottish universities.
Hillman further remarks that the Scottish universities find it financially beneficial to accept students from outside Europe as they are not entitled to free or concessional fee structures, unlike the home or EU students.
UCAs’s chief executive, Clare Marchant, maintains that the increasing student attention from around the world is not, in fact, a cause of worry but a reason to feel proud about the level of education quality in the region.
Swiney justifies process for foreign students in Scotland
For the students who took the Advanced Highers this year, the official scores released by the Scottish Qualifications Authority paint a gloomy picture.
A decreasing number of students taking the exam, as against the last year, and the dwindling pass rate suggest a failure from the higher education standards, indicates the party’s education spokesperson, Iain Gray.
He insists that this is a result of years of budget cutbacks, staff reduction, and curriculum restrictions.
However, John Swinney, education secretary justifies the results saying that the consistent increase in pass rates would only cause us to question the credibility of the entire assessment process. student
Swiney furthers his argument by stating that the year-after-year variations are a result of reliable and robust assessment procedures. One needs only to look around globally to see that higher education students are extremely selective in their choices, and many factors are being considered.
