This naturally leads to another important aspect of the student experience: well-being and pastoral care. When we talk about student well-being in higher education, the conversation often focuses on mental health and access to counselling or other specialist services. These are undoubtedly important, but well-being is much broader. It encompasses a student’s sense of belonging, safety, confidence and connection, as well as the practical, academic, financial, cultural and personal circumstances that can affect their ability to study and thrive.

For TNE students, these considerations can become even more complex. This is something I have seen repeatedly through my own work with TNE programmes and through conversations with students, academics and professional services colleagues across different international contexts. The specific challenges vary considerably, but there are some recurring themes: uncertainty about where to turn for help, differences in expectations around support, cultural barriers to asking for assistance and, sometimes, simply not knowing who is responsible for what.

Well-being starts before the student enters the classroom

For students studying for a foreign qualification outside their home country, the challenges may begin long before they arrive at their institution. Immigration and visa requirements, healthcare arrangements, accommodation, financial pressures, employment restrictions and understanding local legal and administrative systems can all create uncertainty. For students and their families, navigating these unfamiliar systems can be stressful, particularly when they do not know where to find reliable information or who is responsible for helping them.

This is an important distinction in TNE. A student studying for an international qualification in their home country may have many of these practical support networks around them already. A student studying in a third country may have far fewer. For example, a student from one country studying for a qualification awarded by a university in another country, while physically studying in a third, may need to navigate three different national contexts. The academic relationship may be relatively straightforward, but the student’s lived experience can be considerably more complex.

In these circumstances, pastoral support cannot simply be an online counselling service or a contact number buried somewhere within a student portal. Students need clear information, accessible points of contact and confidence that someone understands the context in which they are living and studying.

The well-being challenge is not always where we expect it

Some of the most interesting conversations I have had with TNE students have been about difficulties that institutions may not immediately recognise as well-being issues. A student can have excellent academic results and still feel isolated. They may be living away from their family for the first time, struggling to establish friendships, adjusting to a new culture or feeling uncertain about whether they really belong within an international university community.

Language can add another layer. As I discussed in my previous article, language challenges are not necessarily about formal proficiency. A student may arrive with an excellent IELTS score and still struggle to understand local pronunciation, accents, colloquialisms, professional jargon or cultural references. The same can be true in reverse. Students studying in their own language may find themselves working with international academics or professional services colleagues whose communication style is unfamiliar.

These experiences can be frustrating and, over time, can contribute to anxiety, disengagement or a feeling of being an outsider. This is why well-being in TNE needs to be considered in the context of the whole student experience rather than as a separate service.

Cultural context matters

Well-being is not understood or experienced in exactly the same way everywhere. Attitudes towards mental health, counselling, disability, family involvement and seeking professional help can vary considerably between cultures. A student may recognise that they are struggling but feel uncomfortable disclosing this to an institution or seeking formal support.

There may also be different expectations around the role of academic staff. In some educational cultures, students may be accustomed to discussing personal or academic difficulties directly with teachers. In others, approaching an academic to ask for help may feel inappropriate or intimidating. The existence of a support service therefore does not necessarily mean that students will use it. Institutions need to consider how support is communicated, who delivers it, how approachable it feels and whether students trust the people providing it.

Should TNE students receive more support?

This is an interesting question, and one I think institutions should be willing to ask. I would argue that, in some TNE contexts, students may need more proactive support than students studying on the home campus, rather than simply the same level of support delivered differently.

That view comes partly from conversations I have had with students studying TNE in different parts of the world. What has struck me repeatedly is how much students can be expected to navigate independently when they are physically distant from the awarding institution. What may appear to an institution to be a relatively straightforward online support offer can feel very different from the student’s perspective.

A student on the home campus can often draw on a wide ecosystem of support almost without thinking about it. They may know where the library is, how to contact their academic adviser, where to access health services, who to speak to about accommodation or how to find student societies. A TNE student may not have the same ecosystem around them. Providing an equivalent email address or online portal does not necessarily create an equivalent support experience. In some circumstances, therefore, equity may require additional or more proactive intervention, particularly during transition points or when students show early signs of disengagement.

Who is responsible for pastoral care?

This becomes particularly important in partnership models. The local partner may know students much better and be best placed to identify changes in behaviour, attendance or engagement. The awarding institution may have specialist well-being expertise, established policies and formal escalation procedures. Neither institution should simply assume that the other is responsible.

In my experience, the strongest partnerships tend to establish clear responsibilities and referral pathways while maintaining a shared understanding that student well-being is a collective responsibility. This does not mean that every partner needs to replicate the full well-being infrastructure of the home campus. It means designing an appropriate support ecosystem for the local context and ensuring that students understand how it works.

Supporting the people who support students

There is also a staff dimension to this conversation. Academic and professional services staff are often the first people to notice that a student is struggling. They may see changes in attendance, engagement, academic performance or behaviour before a student ever contacts a formal well-being service.

Staff therefore need more than good intentions. They need appropriate training and development to recognise potential concerns, understand the boundaries of their role and know where and how to refer students for additional support. This is particularly important in TNE, where the person closest to a student may not be the person with access to specialist support.

I have also seen how much difference it can make when local staff and colleagues at the awarding institution have established relationships and understand each other’s roles. When those relationships exist, concerns can be identified and escalated much more quickly. When they do not, students can sometimes find themselves caught between institutions, with each assuming that the other is dealing with the issue.

Staff also need support themselves. International partnership work can involve significant demands, including working across cultures and time zones, managing complex relationships, dealing with difficult student situations and navigating different institutional expectations. Staff well-being matters not only because institutions have responsibilities towards their employees, but because staff who feel supported are better placed to support students. Professional development, peer support, clear escalation processes and regular communication between partner teams can therefore contribute to both staff and student well-being.

Families matter too

Conversations with students have also reminded me that the family dimension should not be overlooked. In many TNE markets, parents and families play a much more significant role in educational decision-making than institutions in some Western countries might expect. For students studying overseas, families may be particularly concerned about safety, accommodation, immigration status, academic progress and employability.

Clear and appropriate communication with families can therefore help build confidence in the institution and the partnership. At the same time, institutions need to balance family engagement with student autonomy, privacy and confidentiality. The role of families should be recognised without undermining the student’s independence.

Beyond the support service

Ultimately, pastoral care is not simply a service that students access when something goes wrong. It is an ecosystem that can involve the lecturer who notices that a student has suddenly withdrawn from class, the administrator who follows up after repeated unexplained absences, the local tutor who knows how to refer a student to specialist support, or a partner institution that understands when a change in behaviour represents a genuine concern rather than simply poor academic engagement.

These everyday interactions can be just as important as formal well-being services. Technology can certainly help. Digital check-ins, online counselling, well-being platforms and early-warning systems can make support more accessible and help institutions identify potential concerns. But technology should complement rather than replace human relationships.

Building environments where students can thrive

As TNE continues to expand globally, institutions will need to think increasingly carefully about what well-being and pastoral care mean across different contexts. The answer will not be identical everywhere. Effective support needs to reflect local cultures, regulatory environments, available services and student expectations while still maintaining clear standards and responsibilities across the partnership.

After speaking with students studying TNE across different countries and partnership models, I increasingly think the most important measure of pastoral support is not how impressive the formal support structure looks on paper, but what happens when a student actually needs help. Does the student know who to contact? Do they feel comfortable asking for help? Does the person they approach know what to do next? And, perhaps most importantly, does the partnership have enough understanding of its students to notice when something is not quite right?

Successful TNE is not only about enabling students to earn an internationally recognised qualification. It is about creating an environment in which they can feel safe, connected, supported and able to thrive while doing so.

In my next article, I will explore another important dimension of the TNE student experience: administrative clarity, and why seemingly small issues around information, processes and responsibility can have a surprisingly significant impact on student confidence and satisfaction.

– Dr Suzanna Tomassi is Executive Director of External Affairs at NCUK, a leading UK pathway provider, and Founder of CoachEd Global, a consultancy specialising in executive coaching and global education advisory.

She is a highly experienced strategic leader and board member with over 20 years’ expertise across UK Government and higher education. Her work focuses on internationalisation, governance, risk oversight, commercial growth, and organisational transformation. Suzanna’s career spans the UK Department for Business and Trade and four major UK universities, where she has shaped national policy, strengthened regulatory and quality frameworks, and led large-scale international expansion initiatives.

An expert in transnational education and global operations, Suzanna has driven multi-country growth strategies, co-authored accreditation guidelines, and facilitated major international investments in UK higher education.

For additional background, please see:

• “Language and communication in TNE: Building bridges across academic and cultural boundaries“
• “Academic support and learning resources in TNE: Delivering student success across borders”
• “Beyond borders: Why student support matters more than ever in transnational education”

The post Well-being and pastoral care in TNE: Supporting students to thrive across borders appeared first on 91ɬ��Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

As of 1 June 2026, universities will be judged according to that demand:

• A sponsored study visa refusal rate of less than 5%;
• An enrolment rate of at least 95%;
• A course completion rate of at least 85% (rising to 95% in 2027).

Only if an institution is rated green will it not be sanctioned or penalised in some way by the Home Office. The red rating band allows for sanctions as severe as the revocation of a university’s license to sponsor (aka recruit) international students. Importantly, the RAG rating is not an aggregate across the three BCA metrics; rather, the university’s rating is based on its lowest score on any one of those compliance requirements.

The introduction of this strict compliance regime underscores the importance of a new British Council report, “.” The report says it is urgent for UK universities to consider expanding recruitment beyond the predominant form of attracting students from source countries. An underused enrolment pipeline, says the report, is international students who are already enrolled in some kind of UK education, whether onshore (e.g., in a bachelor’s programme) or offshore (e.g., via transnational education programming, such as a branch campus or through a foreign partnership).

The dangers of overreliance on direct overseas recruitment

91ɬ�� three-quarters (72%) of current foreign students in UK universities were recruited directly from their home countries, primarily through educational agents, student fairs, institutional outreach, and digital channels. Direct overseas recruitment is the norm – but it is also highly vulnerable to external events.

For example, foreign currency fluctuations, policy shifts, geo-political tensions, and affordability crises often dramatically affect international enrolments, and they are doing so right now. Non-EU commencements in the UK have been falling over the past couple of years, especially for postgraduate programmes, where most international students are enrolled. Immigration policies (including the dependant’s ban in 2024) sparked the trend. The updated BCA thresholds and associated Red-Amber-Green (RAG) system will ingrain it further.

The RAG effect on direct recruitment

The RAG system makes it much riskier to directly recruit students from several key non-EU markets. The study visa refusal rate threshold, in particular, is a game changer: it coincides with massive spikes in visa refusals for students from key growth markets, as shown in the chart below.

Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Bangladesh are important growth markets for many UK universities – but the surging rejection rates observed for each this year now increases the risk of a red RAG rating.

Among other penalties, a first red rating results in an institution having its sponsored study visa allocation (CAS) reduced by a minimum of 10% and a “final warning” that compels it to stay out of red for the next five annual BCA assessments. A subsequent red rating (after the final warning) is worse still: it constitutes a “serious breach of sponsorship duties” and allows the Home Office to remove a university’s right to sponsor international students.

Secondary routes are more resilient to external shocks

The rapid decline in the number of sponsored study visa applications and issuances over the past few months is largely due to UK universities and students from high-risk markets anticipating – and reacting to – the impact of the RAG system. Even before the new regime came into effect this week, some universities simply stopped recruiting in countries that were perceived as high risk in terms of visa refusals, and many students have withdrawn their applications to avoid any chance of having a visa refusal attached to their student profile.

Universities that can best withstand the effects of the new compliance standards are either elite institutions (less reliant on high-risk markets) or those that have contingency plans in place, such as the ability to recruit students already enrolled in these two ways:

• Offshore in transnational education (TNE);
• Onshore in K-12 schools, foundational, and degree programmes.

In both those cases, students are already invested in obtaining a UK qualification. They are already enrolled somewhere in the system – which means they don’t have to be recruited directly once more from their home countries.

As the report suggests, the opportunity here is to encourage existing onshore and offshore students to “convert” again, perhaps most crucially into a postgraduate programme. Those programmes attract 70% of onshore international students, and they are also the most affected by recent policies.

The potential of pathway recruitment

The following table shows that secondary entry routes for postgraduate studies at UK universities are growing, while direct recruitment is falling. For example, between 2022/23 and 2023/24:

• TNE (as an entry route to postgraduate studies in the UK) grew by +129%;
• Pre-sessional English (e.g., English-language courses for students to gain proficiency before entering degree programmes) was up +7.5%;
• Prior UK study (e.g., undergraduate to postgraduate or postgraduate to another advanced degree) was up +39%.

By contrast, direct recruitment was down -13.5%.

The crucial role of the undergraduate pipeline

When international bachelor’s enrolments fall, there are downstream effects. A significant number of international undergraduates progress to postgraduate studies (29,900 in 2023/24). The report notes:

“This makes UG2PG [i.e., undergraduate to postgraduate progression] a pivotal mechanism for institutional resilience: it captures the extent to which providers can convert prior UK study into master’s enrolments, rather than relying predominantly on new international recruitment at the point of entry.”

This point is especially important when looking at the markets where negative pressures on demand are the strongest. Though students from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Ghana, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, and Kenya are primarily enrolled in postgraduate programmes, anywhere from 20%–40% (depending on market) are in bachelor’s programmes. Collectively, this is a lot of students who can be recruited from within the UK.

Students with prior UK study experience and a history of compliance with immigration rules generally have a stronger chance of being approved for a second sponsored study visa (e.g., for postgraduate studies) than applicants from high-risk markets. They have demonstrated that they are genuine students whose primary reason for being in the UK is to study rather than to access work or immigration routes through the back door.

In turn, secondary pathways into undergraduate programmes deserve more attention, says the report:

“Universities’ foundation and [private pathway programmes] imply a sizeable “hidden” feeder pipeline into undergraduate degrees. This matters because these entrants often represent students with a higher level of commitment to a UK degree, and they can provide a stabilising buffer when direct recruitment is disrupted.”

Recommendations

The British Council advises:

“Institutions should treat students with prior engagement with UK education … as part of their resilience strategy [and] scale outreach work with UK schools, TNE, and international partnerships routes where feasible (including progression agreements and joint delivery).”

And continues: “All institutions, including highly ranked institutions, should therefore proactively develop and formalise progression pipelines … to sustain their future onshore conversion base.”

Another important recommendation concerns data. The report proves that the sector, and government, needs to capture and track pipeline progressions for a true understanding of risk. For example, rather than simply consider Pakistan a high-risk market, looking at the entry routes and progressions of Pakistani students could show which routes are more likely to contain genuine students who will succeed in their programmes and be compliant.

The report asserts: “To move from recruitment analytics to sustainability and quality, entry routes should be linked to continuation, completion, progression and employment outcomes.”

The report is broadly relevant across destinations

The report offers food for thought for universities across the Big Four because they share a common need right now: strategies to mitigate risk in the face of tightened immigration policies and heightened regulatory requirements.

For additional background, please see:

• “Narrowing bands of compliance: How the UK’s new RAG system will impact international student recruitment”
• “UK: Sponsored study visa issuances down, rejection rates up, and more”
• “UK universities bracing for a further decline in international enrolments”
• “UK: 7 in 10 universities report declining international postgraduate enrolments; visa rejections are part of the story”

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India, like China, has cultivated an eclectic mix of political and economic alliances across multiple regions. It is as likely to partner with the US as with Russia, and it works closely with France, Germany, Japan, and Australia on joint goals in the spheres of military, technology, and trade. In 2026, India has renewed ties with Canada under Prime Minister Mark Carney after a years-long diplomatic rift.

Higher education has become another area of strength: the number of top-ranked Indian higher education institutions is growing. In the 2026 QS world ranking, 54 Indian institutions were featured. This is five times as many as in 2015.

For all these reasons – as well as US President Trump’s dismantling of the post-WWII world order of alliances – India is an increasingly coveted trade and education partner. It is now negotiating from a very different position than it has historically: a position of strength, as an equal partner.

This is nowhere more evident than in international education. India is no longer just a source of students for the Big Four (Australia, Canada, UK, and US) – it is ever more a country with which the Big Four partner under mutually beneficial terms.

This reality is well illustrated by the warming India-Canada relationship in 2026.

The Canada–India Talent and Innovation Strategy

In February 2026, representatives from 20 top Canadian institutions travelled to India to explore partnerships centred on common areas of interest and specialisation with Indian counterparts. There, the was launched by Universities Canada and Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan). Notably, Prime Minister Carney as well as Foreign Minister Anita Anand were present in Mumbai for the official launch, signalling the importance of the Strategy to Canada.

Out of that event alone, 13 new MOUs were signed (see ). Collectively, the MOUs cover student and faculty exchanges; joint academic programming; dual credentials; embedded work experience; post-study progressions into jobs; research collaboration including potential TNE arrangements and STEM projects such as clean energy and AI; and pathways from Indian programmes to Canadian programmes.

The collaborative approach signalled by the new Strategy is more than evident in the statements prepared by Minister Anand and Universities Canada President Gabriel Miller. Count the number of times “partner” or “partnership” appear in their quotes:

Minister Anand: “Canada and India are natural partners in education, innovation and research. Canada welcomes the new Canada–India Talent and Innovation Strategy that will create opportunities for students and researchers, drive economic growth, and reinforce the strong people-to-people ties that connect our two countries.”

Mr Miller: “This is a new chapter in a very important relationship, and it demands a new partnership on higher education and research, which is vital to the future of both our countries. We are building the foundations of a long-term partnership that will create good jobs, better incomes and communities that can thrive in a highly competitive global economy.”

An invitation to ambassadors

Also in February, Indian Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan addressed the Study in India Edu-Diplomatic Conclave 2026 in New Delhi. In attendance were ambassadors, high commissioners, and diplomats from over 50 countries. With Indian officials, participants discussed strengthening international cooperation in higher education.

As per an article in The Hindustan Times: “[Minister Pradhan] called upon the Excellencies to collaborate with India’s fast-growing, innovation-driven, multidisciplinary and access-friendly education system.”

Minister Pradhan told the assembly that “Indian institutions are deepening global engagement through joint, dual and twinning programmes, while premier universities are expanding their international footprint.” He made particular mention of the Global South and distanced it from its colonialist interpretation: “From artificial intelligence, biotechnology and semiconductors to sustainable energy, India is emerging as a trusted innovation partner, advancing a Global South model rooted in collaboration, capacity-building and shared knowledge.”

The foreign diplomats were told that India’s previously unstructured and unregulated environment for branch campuses has been replaced with “a transparent and time-bound regulatory framework” that has seen top institutions in Australia, Italy, the UK, and the US cleared within a month.

A redefinition of India

Canada’s flurry of education and research agreements with India are but an example of momentum in the Big Four to move from a purely recruitment-focused model – i.e., enrolling Indian students at home – to a partnership model. In recent months, the UK, Spain, and Australia have all sent similar delegations to build new partnerships in India.

The shift happens as:

• The number of Indian students studying abroad in 2025 fell by -5.7% compared with 2024, according to India’s Ministry of External Affairs;
• The number of first-time Indian students in UK institutions fell -12% in 2024/25, the second year of decline;
• In Australia, Indian commencements were down -8% in January–September 2025;
• In the first half of 2025, Canada granted 9,995 study permits to Indian students – down from 76,930 in the same period in 2024 and 149,875 in 2023;
• In the US, F-1 visas issued to Indian students fell by -44% in the first half of 2025 versus the first half of 2024.

For additional background, please see:

• “The number of Indian students abroad fell in 2025“
• “The UK is quickly expanding its TNE footprint in India”

The post Canada and India deepen educational ties; India repositions as an equal player in international education appeared first on 91ɬ��Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

Beyond volume, what is notable here is that the partnerships are with institutions from a wide array of countries. For years, the UK has been the world leader in TNE provision, but last year, it accounted for only 15% of the new partnerships approved by China’s Ministry of education. reports:

“Two-thirds (66%) of newly-approved partnerships were formed with institutions outside the ‘Big 4’ English-speaking countries that have historically been the main destinations for Chinese students studying abroad, with Russia making up the largest single group of approvals. This continues a trend towards a more diverse selection of partner countries.”

As well as Russia, active partnerships now include institutions in Italy, Germany, France, Malaysia, New Zealand, Brazil, and more.

The record number of TNE approvals in 2025 followed two years of relatively low approval rates, and the expansion is likely due to low capacity in China’s top universities and to concern over a persistently high youth unemployment rate.

The diversity of partner nations dovetails with China’s strategy of building trade and other relationships in regions all over the world. Earlier this month, we looked at trends in international research collaborations, and as with TNE, China stands out in its interest in cooperating with a wide range of countries.

In both research and TNE, the shape of China’s international partnerships conforms to its economic needs. Priority areas include AI, robotics, computing, oil and gas, and medicine, but the overall range of partnerships is well rounded and driven by the Chinese government’s identification of niche strengths.

Writing in , Futao Huang, a professor at the Research Institute for Higher Education at Hiroshima University in Japan, wrote that the evolution of Chinese TNE mirrors the growing power of China:

“China has become more assertive in linking international cooperation to its strategic industries, such as artificial intelligence, green technologies and health sciences. Joint education is increasingly valued not just as a tool for internationalisation, but as a mechanism for strategic capacity building …For foreign universities, the message is more complex. On the one hand, China remains open to collaboration and continues to approve new partnerships even in a tense global environment. On the other hand, the terms of engagement have changed. Foreign partners are expected to align their offerings with China’s strategic priorities, and partnerships are scrutinised more closely for quality and outcomes.”

China’s Ministry of Education has a target to expand enrolment in transnational education programmes (TNE) from an estimated 800,000 students currently to 8 million.

For additional background, please see:

• “China leverages higher education capacity with expanded TNE partnerships”

The post China: Two-thirds of new TNE partnerships are with countries outside the Big Four appeared first on 91ɬ��Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

That scale of operations provides Coursera with an interesting perspective on global skills development trends, many of which are reflected in the recently released .

Among its key findings, the report highlights the importance of micro-credentials for building and maintaining an agile workforce. “By 2030, an estimated 92 million jobs will be displaced, while 170 million new ones will be created—a net gain of 78 million roles,” says the report. “Eighty-five percent of employers say they need to upskill their workforce just to keep pace, and 70% plan to hire talent with new capabilities in areas like data science, cloud computing, and GenAI. This transformation means micro-credentials are more vital than ever for establishing skills and career readiness.”

Just over nine in ten employers (91%) say that employees with micro credentials demonstrate better command of core competencies. A similar proportion of employees (94%) with micro credentials say the qualifications have accelerated their career development and allowed them to be more competitive in a quickly changing labour market.

Coursera reports that those patterns are playing out within its own enrolment base with “positive growth” in Professional Certificate enrolments in all global regions, including a 37% increase in North America (the highest globally) and 36% growth in the Middle East and North Africa year-over-year.

The report highlights as well the surging demand in some quickly expanding and evolving fields of work, notably Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity.

The report says of the former: “In 2023, early adopters flocked to GenAI, with approximately one person per minute enrolling in a GenAI course on Coursera – a rate that rose to eight per minute in 2024. Since then, GenAI has continued to see exceptional growth, with global enrolment in GenAI courses surging 195% year-over-year—maintaining its position as one of the most rapidly growing skill domains on our platform. To date, Coursera has recorded over 8 million GenAI enrolments, with 12 learners per minute signing up for GenAI content in 2025 across our catalog of nearly 700 GenAI courses.”

Employer surveys over that same period highlight the competitive advantage for candidates with GenAI skills, with labour market demand for roles in AI technology expected to expand by another 40% within the next four years. “Mastering AI fundamentals – from prompt engineering to large
language model (LLM) applications – is essential to remaining competitive in today’s rapidly evolving economy,” concludes the report.

Following growing worldwide concerns around data security and data protection, a similar pattern is playing out across Coursera’s Cybersecurity catalogue. Year-over-year growth in Cybersecurity courses on the platform reached 106% in Latin America, 20% in Europe, and 14% in Asia Pacific in 2025. But the report nevertheless identifies a significant and widespread labour market gap in this area: “Globally, nearly five million additional cybersecurity professionals are needed, and
two-thirds of employers cite skill gaps as a barrier to adopting emerging technology. Security
Management Specialist ranks among the top five fastest-growing roles, yet less than half of organizations feel ‘highly prepared’ to defend against AI-driven cyber threats.”

Skills training alongside degrees

“Two-thirds of employers regard skill shortages as a major barrier to business growth,” notes the report, “and in countries like Germany, unfilled vacancies cost an estimated US$339 billion (1.3% of GDP).”

The vast majority of employers surveyed by Coursera say that they have adopted or are exploring skills-based hiring – an approach that focuses on skills qualifications in combination with traditional degrees.

Those broad patterns carry with them some important implications for international educators including the need to demonstrate career linkages and outcomes at every level of study, the opportunity to combine more traditional qualifications with alternate credentials (including micro credentials), and the potential of combining more conventional modes of delivery on campus with remote learning or transnational education in order to support graduates in continuing skills training.

For additional background, please see:

• “Are employers recognising alternative credentials in hiring decisions?“
• “New study highlights the expanding landscape of microcredentials“
• “The growing importance of non-degree credentials“

The post The surging demand for skills training in a rapidly changing global economy appeared first on 91ɬ��Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

Fast facts

Population: Over 13.2 million, with 1.8 million in the capital city of Kigali.

Youth: Three-quarters of the population is under 35, and the median age is 19.

Geography: Rwanda is in central/eastern Africa, bordered Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Unemployment: The youth unemployment rate was 18% in 2023.

Languages: notes that “99% of Rwandans speak Kinyarwanda – a Bantu language and the country’s mother-tongue – and Rwanda has three other official languages: French, English and Swahili.” Rwandans used to favour French over English, but after the genocide of Tutsis in the late-90s and a popular perception that France did not do enough to stop it, there was a quick transition to English.

English: The EF Proficiency Index ranks Rwanda 22nd of 24 countries in Africa for English proficiency. The language of instruction is English and improving English-language proficiency is .

Religion: Christianity dominates, and the Muslim population makes up only 1% of the total.

Outbound: UNESCO counted 6,900 students from Rwanda abroad for tertiary education in 2022. That is a relatively small number, but it is growing, albeit relatively slowly. In 2023/24, the US down 4.5% from the previous year. Canada hosted 2,785 – a doubling over the previous year. Smaller numbers of Rwandan students are in India, France, DRC, Uganda, and South Africa.

Inbound: 9,000 students in 2024, up from 1,400 in 2017.

Rwanda is one of the most interesting countries in Africa – in general, but also in terms of education. Increasing the enrolment rate at all school levels, improving quality, moving towards sustainability, and digitisation have been goals of the government for years. President Paul Kagame, who has been in power since 2000, has had a longtime aim of making Rwanda a knowledge economy and an education hub in Africa. Since 2017, the country has moved from attracting 1,400 international students to .

The government has articulated key goals in its to improve the access, quality, and relevance of education. That plan intends to transform Rwanda from a “predominantly agrarian-based, low-income economy to an industrial upper middle-income nation by 2035.”

The strategy prioritises improvements in the secondary system (especially literacy and numeracy) and vocational training sector (TVET). At the higher education level, it pinpoints STEM fields, manufacturing, construction, health, and education. Across all levels, there is an emphasis on digital delivery models and digital competency.

Challenges in the country’s higher education system include a lack of qualified teachers, a lack of instructors with advanced degrees – affecting the ability of the country to conduct and collaborate internationally on research – and weak links with priority industries and employers. In addition, more than half of higher education institutions are private and not all of them are delivering high quality or relevant education. Private institutions have helped to increase capacity and access, but the government rightly states in its strategy that this is not enough to help the country meet its development goals.

Goal: To become “the Singapore of Africa”

Despite its challenges, Rwanda’s higher education system has improved steadily and on par with the country’s aspirations to be “the Singapore of Africa”– i.e., a regional education hub. The aim for the system is to be relevant to local and regional needs yet also globally connected and competitive – and students from other African countries are clearly impressed. Speaking with the Somalian student Rahma Ahmed, an IT and entrepreneurship student at (founded according to an international partnership) said:

“I was thrilled the moment I got an opportunity to come to Rwanda. Because the other international students shared interesting study experiences, the hospitality of the students was also good, and diversity of the nationalities in the institutions was a bonus among others. And then there’s the money issue. Higher education in Rwanda has long been a lot cheaper than it is in most regions that I have checked out. In fact, almost free, for international students and nationals alike.”

Drice Michaella Ingabire, a Burundian former student at (a high school, and again a Rwanda-foreign country collaboration), said:

“Rwanda is a country that gives everyone an equal chance. That includes the children of farmers from the remotest corners of low-income countries, who couldn’t possibly think of studying at IVY League universities.”

Open to foreign agreements

The government is open to international collaborations to help it achieve its regional hub ambitions. For example, to address Rwanda’s shortage of qualified teachers, INTO and the British Council joined forces with local providers to deliver a . Students took digital tablets home throughout the course to receive the training virtually.

INTO’s Mike Riley said the project was hugely successful and that Rwandan trainer graduates now pass on their learning to Rwandan teachers.

“It has been inspiring working with teachers across the whole of Rwanda and supporting efforts to achieve a sustainable change in the Rwandan education system. We wish the local English teachers the very best as they deliver ongoing training to local secondary teachers in Rwanda, who we know are excited to put their new skills into practice.”

INTO and the British Council have been involved in training thousands of Rwandan teachers in English in the past few years through various partnerships, including with the Mastercard Foundation.

Countries with universities currently working in higher education partnerships with Rwanda include (click on the hyperlinks to read about them):

• Belgium
• And many more.

In all these cases, the goal is to forge mutually beneficial arrangements that meet Rwanda’s labour market and research needs, and to have more PhD graduates in the country (see this . The Rwandan government is interested in educational exchanges more than pure outbound mobility, as explained by Dr Robert Ibo Hinson in

In short, Rwanda is following the “smart internationalisation” pathway coined by Professor Damtew Tefera and advocated in Tibelius Amutuhaire’s Internationalization and Student Mobility: Exploring the Mobility of Higher Education Students in East Africa, which we covered last week on 91ɬ��Monitor. Professor Tefera argues that traditional concepts of internationalisation are Eurocentric/Western and do not benefit the Global South because they are not relevant to the economic and cultural contexts in Africa. He proposes that “smart internationalisation strategies make the process locally focused, though with an international flavour.”

Rwanda offers a fascinating example of the future of internationalisation – more balance between inbound and outbound, and heavily geared towards the needs of the sending country.

For additional background, please see:

• “East African student mobility: Current trends and future possibilities”
• “International scholarships aimed at encouraging a more equitable world“

The post Rwanda: A prime example of “smart internationalisation” appeared first on 91ɬ��Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

Meanwhile, there were 758,855 international students studying at higher education institutions in the UK in 2022/23. The onshore number remained higher that year, but maybe not for long. In part because of tighter immigration settings, visa issuances have been trending down this year and the in-country total is therefore likely to be lower the next time enrolments are tallied. By contrast, UK TNE is almost certainly destined to grow after a healthy 8.8% increase last year in the number of students enrolled in degrees delivered online, in-country, or through partnerships abroad.

Offshore/online delivery has several benefits for international students, including that it is less expensive than travelling for in-campus study in the UK, and that because many elite UK universities participate in TNE, students can access the prestige they want from a higher education degree while remaining in their own region.

Regional breakdown

The dominant region for UK TNE is Asia, which is responsible for half (51.5%) of all enrolments (312,295). Europe is next with 110,750, followed by the Middle East (82,930) Africa (64,790), and North America (29,455). There are also about 3,500 students in South America and 2,930 in Australasia.

The top five markets for UK TNE providers are China, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, and Egypt, accounting for a collective 40% of all UK higher education TNE activity. Sri Lanka displaced Malaysia in second place in 2022/23 with 18% y-o-y growth. Malaysia was the only country in the top five to report a decline.

Outside of the top five, the UAE is the fastest-growing TNE market, posting 20.4% year-over-year growth in 2022/23.

Move toward partnerships

There are several categories of TNE, including branch campuses, distance/online learning, joint/dual degrees, and faculty exchanges. But going into 2025, there is a trend emerging: governments open to UK TNE are more interested in internationalising their higher education systems through partnerships than in sending their own students to UK branch campuses.

As reported in , at a British Council “Deep Dialogues” session at the November 2024 Manchester Conference – hosted by the UK’s (QAA) for Higher Education and the consultancy Education Insight – university and government attendees from 19 countries were asked about the purpose of TNE in their nation. Here are the top five answers, in order:

• “Internationalisation of domestic higher education system”
• “Enhancing the quality of the higher education system”
• “Widening access to higher education”
• “Increasing diversity in higher education”
• “Attracting international talent”

Professor Vangelis Tsiligkiris, founder of the TNE (international) Hub based at Nottingham Trent University in the UK, told University World News:

“The top four answers show why we need to talk about equitable partnerships and the need for host countries to gain something from TNE partnerships. That’s not always clear to the exporting institutions and it should be embedded, but isn’t always, into collaboration.”

Still, partnerships are on the rise. In 2022/23, UK TNE programmes delivered via overseas partner organisations enrolled 155,025 international students, compared with 138,090 in 2021/22. And in 2022/23, TNE provided by “other arrangement including collaborative provision” enrolled 252,405, compared with 225,675 the previous year.

For additional background, please see:

• Attend . A unique online event that brings together
  e-learning and hybrid education providers, with ICEF-screened student recruitment agents.
• “Universities UK releases blueprint for higher and international education”

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