The colleges are focusing on West and North African nations, the place they consider there’s a sizeable pool of scholars appropriate to review within the UK.
The establishments consider that the UK has a strong popularity as a vacation spot, sufficient to draw college students from non-traditional markets in Africa the place English just isn’t extensively spoken or utilized in faculties.
As such, universities and recruiting companies are focusing on nations together with Senegal, Ivory Coast and Cameroon, Gabon, Morocco and Algeria as entry factors, partly taking cue from French universities below Campus France that in 2023 introduced a change of technique in diversifying their supply markets to Anglophone Africa.
Recruiters say that current traits on scholar mobility present that there have been growing numbers of scholars from Francophone Africa in search of examine alternatives in English-speaking examine locations, specifically within the US and Canada.
“There has additionally been an increase in English-taught programs in French-speaking nations as coverage adjustments and financial forces imply there’s a recognition that the usage of English is a necessity for full participation in as we speak’s globalised financial system,” mentioned Emma Tarrant Tayou, director of the worldwide training firm Graduate Steerage Group (G3).
Whereas the variety of college students from Francophone Africa heading to review within the UK have been low, tertiary establishments such the Worldwide College of Grand Bassam of Ivory Coast are producing English-speaking graduates eager to discover worldwide alternatives, she mentioned.
“By conversations with native stakeholders, what we now have recognized is {that a} sheer lack of promotion efforts by UK universities have led to college students pursuing different choices. The dearth of native promotion efforts and native assist for college kids with an curiosity within the UK led to a perception that the UK admissions and [gaining a] scholar visa are advanced processes,” she advised The PIE Information at an alumni occasion hosted by her firm in Nairobi, Kenya on 10 September
“We due to this fact recognized a possibility for UK universities to put money into attracting college students from these nations via the organisation of colleges and college visits in addition to open exhibitions,” she added.
A sheer lack of promotion efforts by UK universities have led to college students pursuing different choices
Emma Tarrant Tayou, G3
She mentioned British embassies have equally been supportive of the efforts, which enhance the availability of Chevening scholarships to college students from Senegal, Ivory Coast and Morocco.
“We now have additionally invested in workers based mostly in Ivory Coast and in Gabon to supply ongoing assist to college students navigating the applying and visa processes,” Tayou revealed.
Lowered availability of UK government-approved English language and TB exams imply some college students must journey throughout borders to take the fitting exams, with some travelling for earlier visa appointments and speedier processing to neighbouring nations.
“Ivorian college students, for instance, solely have 4 dates within the month on which to submit visa functions in Abidjan and due to this fact select to journey to Accra to submit,” she noticed.
G3 partnered with a neighborhood English language faculty in Gabon to open an workplace within the capital Libreville, providing recommendation on English language programs and exams in addition to on college admissions.
Tayou mentioned: “By bringing the proposal to college students in these nations, we’re seeing a optimistic response from college students and fogeys alike. We invite universities to affix in visiting these new markets and stimulate the demand additional”.
Whereas African college students present curiosity in learning in any respect ranges from undergraduate to masters and PhD programs, in Francophone nations robust curiosity is registered in undergraduate research – with the center lessons and elite selecting to enrol their youngsters in worldwide faculties providing the British, American, French or IB curricula, she added.
Universities within the UK stay enticing to African college students, regardless of the nation being a comparatively costly vacation spot, because of the standard of training, scholar assist and popularity for getting ready college students to be “vital thinkers”.
For the schools to stay enticing, they should improve assist to college students from new markets, particularly in nations the place the schools didn’t have any illustration, and the place college students battle with “procedural challenges of arriving within the UK and settling in”, Tayou prompt.
The College of Kent was already seeing curiosity from nations together with Morocco, Senegal, Algeria and Cameroon, the place each English and French are spoken, in response to Michael Ijaiyemakinde, a world officer on the college.
The UK is understood for its “training acumen”, he mentioned, making it simple for universities to draw a range of scholars from each English and French-speaking areas of Africa. The UK visa utility is a “simple course of”, in comparison with different Massive 4 locations, he believed, which made the vacation spot enticing, he prompt.
“The training supplied within the UK is revered all around the world. For Francophone Africa, we solely must know navigate the market. The one concern for many individuals is the fee, and if we might cost an quantity near what French universities cost, we’d take the market with ease,” he mentioned.
“The variety of functions from the Francophone areas of Africa is slowly rising simply the best way the numbers from the Center East have been rising. I consider language just isn’t a barrier large sufficient for many who need to examine within the UK,” he added.
That is very true, he mentioned, when it’s thought of that the schools had been already admitting college students from non-English talking Asian nations reminiscent of Thailand, Singapore, South Korea, Cambodia and China amongst others.
The training supplied within the UK is revered all around the world. For Francophone Africa, we solely must know navigate the market
Michael Ijaiyemakinde, College of Kent
The College of Southampton started to enterprise into the French-speaking sphere by beginning to discover the Moroccan market, the place it believes a market already exists, mentioned Nadia Gabr, worldwide recruitment supervisor for Africa, mentioned.
As a college that has college students from 135 completely different nationalities, the establishment stays “very inclusive”, and recruiting college students from quite a lot of cultural and lingual backgrounds was a part of its technique, she defined.
In the meantime, Cardiff Metropolitan College is focusing on West African nations of Senegal, Ivory Coast and Cameroon, the place plenty of worldwide bilingual faculties already existed, Deve Omiunu Worldwide Pupil recruitment officer, acknowledged.
The scholars nonetheless wanted to satisfy the worldwide threshold of 6.0 rating in ILETS English competence check alongside different {qualifications} to be able to acquire admission on the college with the “most employable college students in Wales,” he mentioned.
The important thing to getting a foothold out there lies in no matter methods British universities will undertake, in response to Lorna Morris, regional recruitment supervisor for the College of Warwick, who believes the key lies in offering ample info to potential college students.
