Page 6 - StudyTravel Magazine May 2025 Issue

EUROPE

UK-Ukrainian charity launches school Decline in overseas students
twinning initiative for UK universities in 2023/24
LANGUAGE SECONDARY TERTIARY
not-for-profit organisation established by Ukrainian agency here was a 3.5 per cent decrease in the
Business Link has launched the new ‘Together’ school twin- number of international students enrolled
A ning initiative, aiming to partner UK schools with partner Tat UK higher education institutions in the
schools in Ukraine. 2023/24 academic year, according to the latest
Founder Valeria Samborska said, “Whether via a pen pal pro- annual data release by the Higher Education
gramme, cultural history exchange, or virtual art exhibition, the Statistics Agency (HESA).
bespoke projects schools work on together, with our support, will In total, there were 732,286 international
inspire and enrich students and provide a crucial, morale-boosting students enrolled in UK higher education in
sense of confidence and global community to both UK and Ukrain- 2023/24, which was still the second-highest
ian students, teachers and families.” total ever recorded, but the first decrease in
The Brightseeds www.bhsu.co.uk organisation is also once overall international student numbers registered
again running a summer schools initiative, aiming to find funded since 2015/16.
summer courses in the UK and Ireland for 50 children to be sent The decline in international students in
over from Ukraine, as well as a fur- 2023/24 was driven by a 21 per cent drop in
ther 100 children displaced and cur- EU students to 75,490, while non-EU students
rently living in the UK and Ireland. declined by one per cent to 656,795.
Read more at: bit.ly/3Rq0gs8 There was, however, a larger fall in non-EU
first-year students, down by 7.1 per cent to
428,195 in 2023/24.
Global agency GrowPro in India remained the top source country for the
administration UK, despite a four per cent decrease to 166,310

LANGUAGE SECONDARY TERTIARY ASSOCIATED students, followed by China, which declined by
2.8 per cent to 149,885 and Nigeria, which was
lobal agency GrowPro Experience, which has offices in Spain, down by 21.6 per cent to 57,505. The top five
Mexico and Colombia as well as in destinations such as Aus- was completed by Pakistan (45,720 students,
Gtralia, Canada and Malta, has gone into administration. +31.8) and the USA (23,250, +4.3). India and
GrowPro Experience, which was established in 2013, had a Nigeria have been particularly impacted by the
turnover of EU€40 million in 2023 and a target of sending 10,000 ban on master’s students bringing dependents.
students overseas, according to a report by El Diario de Madrid . In Scotland, there was a 12 per cent decrease
The Spanish government’s bankruptcy portal shows that a in international stu-
declaration was issued at the end of January. In February, staff in dents in 2023/24 and
the Australian offices contacted clients to advise that operations a 19.6 per cent decline
had been suspended. ABC News in Australia quoted an initial in new entrants for the
liquidators’ report that AUS$4.19 million was owed to creditors, year. Read more at:
including AUS$2.4 million to students. bit.ly/4chUt1G bit.ly/4hHzAxW

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