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Global opportunities: The ever-increasing demand for international graduate education
Peter MacDonald, Director of the QS World Grad School Tour, notes that the breadth of subject interest has developed relatively quickly over recent years and is influenced by a number of factors: “International students tend to choose those subjects where they have the greatest opportunity for employment after graduation. Where a country’s economy is developing quickly, students from that country tend to have more opportunities in a wider range of careers than if an economy is emerging. For example, as the Chinese and Indian economies have become more diverse, students from these countries are choosing a greater variety of subjects to reflect the improved employment prospects that they now have.”
Subject choice is also being influenced by a change in attitude from many of the world’s universities and colleges offerings Masters programs in particular. In previous years, students were offered graduate programs in distinct academic areas where a grad school had expertise, irrespective of the demands of the local or international labour market. Increasingly this approach is changing and Masters programs are being designed or revised, often with the direct collaboration of business or industry, with the intention of producing qualified graduates with the requisite skills to enter specific areas of the labour market. Academic areas as diverse as public policy, international relations, biological sciences and administration now benefit from this changed perspective and are increasingly popular amongst international graduate students.
The cost of future education is likely to become more expensive and students will take the decision to study abroad much seriously.
Finance and funding
One of the single biggest issues for prospective graduate students is the way in which their period of study will be funded. With the cost of programs varying according to the location of a university, the perception of the quality of the program, an institution’s career placement record and, on occasions, the popularity of an institution, students are constantly matching their ambitions with the amount of funding available to them. A number of trends have emerged in recent years that are directly related to the funding and financing of international graduate programs, the two most prominent of which are the widespread introduction of market-rate tuition fees for graduate programs and the increase in the number of loans available to fund international study.
Although tuition fees have become a common feature of Masters and PhD programs for international students over the last 20 years or so, the last year has seen more countries discussing the implementation of tuition fees for non-national students than ever before. Indeed, even amongst those countries that have charged tuition fees for a number of years, the debate around the level of such fees has also increased. The two most recent examples of this debate are both Nordic countries – Finland and Sweden – and the discussion has had very different outcomes. In Finland, preparation for charging tuition fees for international graduate students has been underway for the last three years, yet in the most recent parliamentary debate the decision was taken that imposing such fees was not in the best interest of the country, thus keeping Masters and PhD programs in national institutions free for all. In Sweden, however, the shock announcement in June 2008 that the Government intends to introduce legislation in November to begin charging non-European students in 2010/2011, marks a significant change that is likely to affect more than 25,000 international students a year currently enjoying free education throughout Sweden.
The implication of more countries charging tuition fees is obvious but, nevertheless, extremely important for all prospective international students: the cost of future education is likely to become more expensive and students will take the decision to study abroad much more seriously than ever before. However, with all evidence indicating that interest in international Masters and PhD programs will increase, the cost of tuition appears not to be a disincentive for students. Much of this is due to the explosion in availability of private finance for students, particularly at the graduate level, where banks and other finance companies now routinely provide preferential loans for those interested in studying abroad. Most students have access to a far greater range of funding choices than ever before, with loans available for tuition fees and living costs, depending on the status of the applicant and their family.
