The representatives of Eurovision’s reigning champion will take to the stage on Saturday – one of them, however, is not Ukrainian, but Nigerian. 

Jimoh Augustus Kehinde, whose parents are from the Kwara and Edo states, ended up in the eastern European country “by chance” in 2013 when he was faced with a choice between there and the UK for study.

Speaking to a Nigerian news website, he said that due to the fact he didn’t get to study aeronautical engineering – his first choice – he was asked to “choose between going to the UK to be with my family” or going to Ukraine to study medicine. 

“I chose Ukraine for the adventure considering I’d never been here before,” Kehinde recounted. 

He attended the Ternopil National Medical University, where he then met his now bandmate in the electronic duo TVORCHI, Andrii Viktorovych Hutsuliak.

According to the PA news agency, the pair met when Hutsuliak asked Kehinde if he could help him with English – and Kehinde accepted on the condition that he could practise his Ukrainian.

Nigerians were one of the most populous nationalities studying in Ukraine until the war broke out in 2022, with Russia invading.  

The two made the decision when their degrees were “almost over” to delve into the country’s music industry. 

In 2017, their debut single Slow was released, and the pair’s debut album The Parts was released the following year. 

Fame came after a slew of appearances at music festivals around the country in 2019, and the pair also came fourth for the Eurovision selection show Vidbir in 2020. 

Despite Kehinde’s studies in medicine, his passion for “creating original music” had been alive long before that, having been his secondary school’s choirmaster for six years.

“I chose Ukraine for the adventure”

“I learnt to play the [talking] drum, a bit of the guitar, the piccolo and the drum set and I just fell in love with the whole idea of creating original music,” he said.

Ukraine has won twice in the last 10 years, with Kalush Orchestra winning 2022’s competition ahead of the UK and Jamala taking the trophy in 2016 with the haunting ballad 1944. 

TVORCHI’s song for the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest, which the pair wrote last year amid the war in the country, is named Heart of Steel.

In an interview with Eurovision blogger Wiwibloggs, Kehinde – who goes by the stage name Jeffrey Kenny – said Eurovision was the perfect place to speak on the “issue” of the war. 

“We’re basically using our platform to speak on some issues we know that some people are misinformed about – it wouldn’t make sense to not talk about it, it’s our specific mission. We’re not trying to throw it into people’s ears, we’re trying to inspire people with our song – we want to represent the country,” he said.

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Former Labour Party spokesperson Alastair Campbell has criticised Brexit for its impact on student exchanges and school trips to the UK. 

Speaking at the International House Director’s Conference on May 9, the British podcaster said one of the “many” reasons he ‘loathed’ Brexit is the subsequent decline in the number of school and college exchanges. 

He also referenced recent ‘scandalous’ incidents of students on school trips whose visa applications were rejected by UK immigration as they do not hold EU passports, despite studying at French schools. 

It comes as youth travel groups launch a joint campaign appealing to the government to allow student groups to visit the UK on a single travel document.

Campbell spoke about the importance of language learning at the London event, discussing his own school trips to Belgium and Germany.

“I wasn’t fluent, far from it, but I got such a buzz from being able to understand the street signs, headlines in news magazines, menus, and to also hold basic conversations,” he said. 

He added that he regretted downgrading language teaching during New Labour’s time in office, saying the decision may have been ‘subconsciously’ rooted in “that very British arrogance which makes us think English is the global language and always will be the main language of business, trade, travel and diplomacy”. 

He said that the rise of China and relative decline of US and British power could change this, predicting that the most useful languages to learn now could include Mandarin, Spanish and Arabic.

The conference, which took place in London, also heard how AI technology and ChatGPT could change language learning, reflecting on Duolingo’s move to incorporate GPT-4 into its lessons, including creating chatbots that learners can ask questions to and receive instant answers.

“It won’t replace the teacher but would augment or support the teacher”

Discussing how schools can compete with a 24/7, low-cost ‘virtual teacher’, a panel talked about giving students immersive cultural experiences in-country and targeting younger students who need supervision. 

“It won’t replace the teacher but would augment or support the teacher,” predicted Jo Sayers, director at LearnJam. 

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The UK government is set to limit dependant visas for international students, according to new reports. 

The Department for Education, the Home Office and the Treasury are planning to prevent master’s students on one-year courses from bringing family members to the UK with them, reports the Financial Times. 

UK net migration figures are predicted to show a record high when they are released later in May, putting pressure on the government to take action to tackle immigration. 

The number of students bringing family members with them increased by almost 30% in 2022, making up 135,788 student visas. Almost 100,000 of these were granted to family members of Indian and Nigerian students. 

Jamie Arrowsmith, director of Universities UK International, said the organisation recognised that the growth in the number of dependants “may have exceeded planning assumption and that this has created some concerns for government, and indeed challenges in some areas of the UK – for example, around access to suitable family accommodation”.

“We are committed to working with government to understand these issues and to find solutions that ensure the UK continues to welcome international students and that we are able to grow numbers in a sustainable way that protects both the quality of the student experience and the UK’s global competitiveness,” he said.

Lil Bremermann-Richard, CEO of Oxford International Education Group, said limiting dependant visas will make it “impossible” for many students to study in the UK.

“If we are truly committed to attracting diverse talent, we need to take into consideration the financial costs that could be involved to secure care alternatives, or to travel back and forth,” she said.

“We also need to remember that students have lots of options; if presented with a choice of studying in the UK and leaving their dependants behind, or studying elsewhere, like Canada for example, with their family, many will choose the latter.

“This policy would exclude a large pool of people from studying at our universities, to the detriment of the UK and our higher education sector.”

A spokesperson from the Home Office said, “The public rightly expect us to control our borders and we remain committed to reducing net migration over time, while ensuring we have the skills our economy and public services needs.”

The proposed policy may not be a blanket ban, but dependant visas could instead be limited to students at top universities or studying “high-value” courses.

“This has created some concerns for government, and indeed challenges in some areas of the UK”

The Times newspaper reported in March that only students enrolled on courses ministers consider to be of high value to the economy, such as science, maths and engineering, will be allowed to bring family members. 

There have also been suggestions that university rankings may be used to decide which students are eligible to bring dependants. 

Writing on LinkedIn, Phil Baty, chief global affairs officer at Times Higher Education, said, “The talk is of using Times Higher Education’s world rankings, among others, as the mechanism to block access to dependents – restricting access to a tiny handful of UK elite universities in the world top 50 – mainly in London and the South East.”

According to the FT, education secretary Gillian Keegan has agreed to the plans. The cabinet minister previously said she will fight cuts to international student numbers and, earlier this week, told the Education World Forum she is “hugely proud” that there are over 600,000 overseas students in the UK. 

Keegan allegedly wants students to ensure students can bring family members if they stay and work in the UK after graduating, despite reports that the Home Office is considering reducing the length of the graduate route from two years to six months. 

Arrowsmith called for “clarity and certainty” over visa policy, saying that the government should commit to the targets set out in the International Education strategy and to maintaining the graduate route. He said both of these are “central to the UK’s attractiveness to prospective students, and our reputation as a global leader in international higher education”. 

Over the past decade, various politicians have called for student numbers to be excluded from net migration figures.

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Australia’s higher education sector is looking to the upcoming Universities Accord and the government’s planned migration strategy to fully understand its strategy on international education following a budget that focused heavily on cost-of-living relief and fiscal repair.

Delivering the budget speech on May 9, treasurer of Australia Jim Chalmers failed to mention schools or universities.

But the budget pointed to the Accord, with an interim report expected by June 2023 and the final report to be delivered by December 2023, that will be an “extensive review” providing recommendations and performance targets for higher education to improve the quality, accessibility, affordability and sustainability.

New announcements included in the budget was the allocation of $31.6 million over two years for “improved training arrangements for international medical students working rural and remote location”.

The headline news was the $127.3m to fund an extra 4,000 students STEM and management degrees across the next four years.

Additionally, it mentioned that international students working in the aged care sector will be exempt from the capped fortnightly work hour limit until 31 December 2023 – a policy that had already been announced.

It also reiterated measures to boost skilled migration via the Mutual Recognition of Qualifications deal with India and allocating some 70% of 2023/24 permanent Migration Program places to skilled migrants.

The budget also noted the additional two years of post-study work rights to Temporary Graduate visa holders with select degrees the government announced in February and also highlighted the increased the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold to $70,000 to “ensure skilled migration settings are better targeted”.

Chief executive of the Group of Eight said that the focus now is on the Universities Accord and future budgets to “deliver on reform that will address the current distorted research funding model & lift [Australia’s] R&D expenditure to the OECD average of 2.7 %”.

Currently, research spending is at 1.8% of GDP, according to the group of research-intensive universities.

While the Go8 “very much welcomes” the new 4,000 additional STEM, it noted concern that “the vast research capability which is equally as critical to AUKUS Pillar 2 was not considered a priority worth inclusion”.

In 2021, Thomson noted that the “distorted” HE funding model in Australia – one that relies overwhelmingly on international students and not enough on public funding – was not sustainable.

While Go8 noted that the latest budget had needed careful balance given the present cost of living and health pressures, it will continue to work with government to ensure Australia’s required sovereign research capability “can be realised and on time”.

“Ensuring Australian students retain the ability to attend a world class university gets a big tick, but there are definitely two aspects to our future defence capability, with research hand in hand with that highly skilled workforce with world-class university training,” she said.

“The budget strikes a balance between cost-of-living relief and fiscal repair,” Universities Australia chief executive Catriona Jackson added.

“We have called on government to ensure university students are included in any cost-of-living support packages and are pleased they have taken this step,” she said, pointing to the increased Youth Allowance, Austudy, ABSTUDY and other income support payments for struggling students.

Universities Australia also highlighted the “vital” role universities play as economic drivers, through the provision of skilled workers and new ideas, research and development.

While the new university places and additional clinical placements are a good start, greater support for universities would make the task of building a better economic future for all Australians easier, the peak body noted.

“We need more skilled workers and more research and development, not less”

“We are a good return on investment, and we drive the productivity the economy so desperately needs,” Jackson said.

“We need more skilled workers and more research and development, not less, but we can’t do it without more investment from government.

While the body acknowledged that “not everything can be funded and tough decisions must be made”, it emphasised that universities “make the nation stronger and more prosperous”.

“We are working with government through the Universities Accord to get the policy and funding settings right for universities and the communities we serve and hope this paves the way for changes in the next federal budget,” Jackson concluded.

The post Australia: focus on Universities Accord after budget goes quiet on HE appeared first on The PIE News.

South Korea hit an all-time high for international student numbers in 2022, new data has revealed. 

The data, released by the Korean Educational Development Institute, comes after an announcement by the country’s immigration service that Korea had passed 200,000 international students. 

The 205,167 international students enrolled in March 2023 means the country hit a target set in 2015 of hosting 200,000 foreign students by 2023. A previous ministry of education aim from 2011 had hoped to host 200,000 university students by 2020, but this date was later revised.

A total of 166,892 students were studying in Korean institutions in April 2022 – an increase of just under 10% from 2021, when there were around 152,000 international students. 

The figures show a rebound after the borders were closed during the Covid pandemic.

​​”The resilience of Korean higher education is highlighted by the slight decline in student recruitment during the pandemic, decreasing to 153,695 in 2020, and 152,281 in 2021,” Kyuseok Kim, a team leader from the State University of New York’s Korea Campus, told The PIE News. 

“Despite the worldwide crisis, these numbers rapidly rebounded and surpassed the pre-pandemic figures, indicating the robustness of Korea’s international education sector.” 

Just after the data was released on May 7, the country’s ministry of education also announced it would be launching a new international student support division. 

“The new division will cater to international students, partner with universities to create new programs and ease visa restrictions for international students,” a ministry spokesperson said. 

The current application process for a student visa requires numerous documents, including ones that prove financial stability. 

The division has been set up under the umbrella of the country’s Global Education Planning Bureau, and will start with seven staff. 

According to KEDI’s data, China sent the most students to Korea last year, with 40% of the numbers. Vietnamese students were the surprise improver, accounting for just under 23% – up almost 6% year-on-year. 

The surge in Vietnamese students, according to experts, could partly be due to Korean investment in Vietnam with some major corporations making bases in the country. 

Various universities in Korea have begun to collaborate with universities in Vietnam. Inje University signed an MoU with Hanoi Polytechnic College in April and Dongnam Health University also recently signed an MoU with two Vietnamese universities with the aim of creating specific exchange programs. 

However, Kim warned that the surge in Vietnamese students in Korea may not only be down to an interest in study. 

“A potential concern is the rapid growth of the Vietnam student market, as it has raised issues regarding illegal immigration,” said Kim  

“Increasing numbers of Vietnamese students appear to be coming to South Korea with the primary intention of earning money rather than education.

“While Vietnam is a significant contributor to transnational student mobility, the need for South Korea to diversify its recruitment strategies is apparent. Currently, China and Vietnam account for the majority of international students, which could potentially be an unsustainable strategy in the long term,” Kim continued. 

Other countries that made large contributions to the surging numbers include Uzbekistan, which accounted for just over 5% of the student numbers, as well as Japan with 3.5%.

“The need for South Korea to diversify its recruitment strategies is apparent”

 “These countries primarily contribute to the language program students, leading to an increase in certificate mobility,” Kim explained. 

KEDI’s data refers to international students at higher education institutions (graduate and undergraduate) as well as non-degree programs and language courses. 

In terms of the institutions attracting the most international students, the private institution of Hanyang University was the most successful, with some 6,999 overseas students attending the university in 2022. 

Hanyang was closely followed by Kyung Hee University with 6,912 international students; Sungkyunkwan University with 6,676; Yonsei University with 5,926 and finally Korea University with just 4,739.

Missing from the top five was the top ranked university in Korea, Seoul National University, but all five are based in Seoul.

“Despite the worldwide crisis, these numbers rapidly rebounded”

Only one of the top ten universities with the most international students is not based in Seoul: Gacheon University in Seognam, which welcomed 3,057 international students in 2022. 

It shows the need for more MoUs and partnerships for universities outside the capital, as has been occurring, said Kim. He added that, overall, the numbers increasing at this rate is encouraging. 

“There has been a steady increase in the enrolment of international students in South Korean HEIs over the past two decades,” Kim said. 

“The number [is a] significant leap from the mere 12,314 students in 2003. This impressive growth is attributed to the increased recognition of the need to globalise higher education, which has subsequently caught the attention of Korean HEIs.” 

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Streamlining foreign credential recognition and investing in student housing are among the actions set out to tackle labour shortages in British Columbia.

Forecasts predict there will be more than one million job openings over the next decade in the Canadian province and, with more people leaving the workforce than joining, immigration will be crucial to plugging the gaps.

A new report from the provincial government sets out a plan to address these labour shortages and close the skills gap, including by improving access to post-secondary education for domestic students and supporting newcomers to find jobs that match their training.

With over 150,000 people moving to BC in 2022, the government said that “too many” immigrants struggle to have their training and credentials recognised, meaning they are unable to join the workforce or are locked out of higher-skills jobs.

BC plans to “streamline” the recognition of foreign credentials, a process that currently involves approximately 50 different regulatory authorities.

The government is aiming to bring forward legislation by autumn 2023 that establishes “more unified standards” for foreign credential recognition. It said this will “help facilitate quicker entry of newcomers into their desired fields of work and remove unnecessary barriers, helping employers find internationally trained workers faster”.

The plan also commits to expanding work-integrated learning opportunities at British Columbia’s “smaller” public post-secondary institutions, particularly those outside of the Vancouver region.

“Work is transforming, and we have more job openings than skilled people”

The government will invest more in on-campus housing for students, planning to deliver 4,000 student beds, in addition to the 8,000 already built or under construction since 2017.

“With close to 200,000 international students in BC, getting more of those students’ housing on or near campus will necessarily alleviate some of the housing pressure in the broader community,” said Randall Martin, executive director at British Columbia Council for International Education.

“There is certainly a pronounced need across the province to increase the supply of affordable housing, perhaps nowhere more so than on our urban and rural campuses.”

“Our economy is growing and innovating quickly,” said David Eby, premier of British Columbia. “Work is transforming, and we have more job openings than skilled people. That’s why we are taking action to make sure people are ready to seize new opportunities and build a good life here in BC, and businesses are able [to] find the people who drive our economy forward and deliver the services we all rely on.”

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Verusha Maharaj heads up Red & Yellow, a creative business school based in Cape Town. She discusses how the institution is preparing young Africans to enter a world of work dominated by new technology.

“We’re all shaking because the robots are coming to take our jobs,” says Verusha Maharaj, managing director of Red & Yellow Creative School of Business. But, unlike some, Maharaj isn’t fazed by this.

“As the line between the physical and the digital world disappears, it’s clear to me that the one thing that cannot be replaced is creative thinking.”

Thus, Red & Yellow, which describes itself as Africa’s leading creative business school, focuses on developing exactly that in its students.

“Even as many of the hard skills become automated, things like being able to create or to innovate will always be inherently human,” Maharaj adds.

Based in Cape Town, Red & Yellow remains relevant by staying ahead of the curve and planning for future trends, Maharaj explains, as well as entrenching the development of the skills that ChatGPT has yet to master into its curriculum – like problem solving and critical thinking.

Popular courses at the business school include digital marketing and visual communications, as well as trend-led short programs such as “Designing in the Metaverse”. The school offers on-campus education, online tuition and qualifications, and corporate training for businesses.

The demand for creative skills remains high in South Africa. Red & Yellow boasts an 87% graduate employability rate. Students typically go on to become copywriters, UX and UI designers, marketing or brand managers, creative directors, art directors and social media managers, among others.

“Things like being able to create or to innovate will always be inherently human”

“A lot of our alumni have gone on to become giants in the industry and they also stay actively involved,” Maharaj says.

This success is, in part, due to the industry-focused pedagogy of the school. Most of the campus is set up like a studio, with very few formal classrooms.

“I had learnt everything that I knew on the job and I refined my skills and knowledge with formal qualifications,” Maharaj says. “So I understood the real world impact of practical experience and how that translated into the industry.”

Maharaj’s own marketing career began “by chance”, she says. “I was actually convinced that I was going to become a doctor and, well, the universe had other ideas for me,” she adds, explaining that she abandoned her medical degree in the third year to study finance while simultaneously taking up a part-time job at an agency, Creative Council.

She stayed there for the next decade, working her way up to general manager of Africa. After a stint in consultancy, she was offered the role at Red & Yellow.

“I knew it would be very different to the stressful pitch presentations and the drawn out creative reviews and the pressurised client deadlines that I knew so well, but I was instantly intrigued,” she says.

One of the biggest challenges for the school is the rise of competing micro-credentials offered by companies such as Meta and Google. Similarly, finding and employing academics with industry-experience, particularly in newer technologies, has been hard.

But Red & Yellow, which is part of the Honoris Universities Network, has global ambitions, beginning with exporting its courses to other African countries. In July 2022, it launched digital marketing training in Mauritius, aimed at first-time learners and professionals looking to cement their knowledge. It has since enabled access to its short-courses in Nigeria, Tunisia and Morocco. Maharaj describes the response as “phenomenal”.

Now the school is exploring developing a physical training centre in Ethiopia and has launched its first international exchange program with another institution in Belgium, funded by Erasmus.

“As the world’s youngest continent, strengthening the skills and knowledge of young Africans to enable them to thrive in today’s globally disrupted world of work is critical,” says Maharaj. “We’re working very hard to drive this agenda”.

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The UK’s education secretary gave an impassioned speech about international education and her pride of the UK sector, including the Turing Scheme, during the 2023 Education World Forum.

“Innovation and collaboration are essential for economies at every level and in every corner of the Earth.

“No country has a monopoly on bright ideas so the more we talk to one another, the greater the scope for coming up with solutions,” said Gillian Keegan, secretary of state for education, in a speech at the London event on May 8.

“One of the most fruitful ways of doing this is by encouraging international students,” she added.

Keegan said she is “hugely proud” that the UK welcomes more than 600,000 international students each year. In the 2021/22 academic year, the country’s institutions welcomed a total of 679,970 non-UK students.

“We don’t just want to take excellence from others, we want to share our own too,” continued Keegan.

She nodded to the success of Heriot-Watt’s Dubai campus – the first campus of an overseas university to open in Dubai International Academic City in 2005 – noting that it began with 120 students and now has 4,000.

“International education is popular. It makes us all richer. We all benefit as we build partnerships and lasting bonds. That’s something we value hugely.”

Yesterday, @GillianKeegan welcomed the world’s largest gathering of education and skills ministers at the Education World Forum.

International collaboration on education strengthens us and helps develop resilience in people and institutions.#EWF2023 pic.twitter.com/RGeAkUiKcS

— Department for Education (@educationgovuk) May 9, 2023

Keegan said she is “delighted” that the Turing Scheme has continued for its third year.

“This year the scheme is unlocking opportunities for more than 38,000 UK students and learners who will gain international experience, developing skills and expertise,” she noted.

She highlighted the opportunities the scheme has given to those traditionally underserved, with 51% of the international placements across 160 countries earmarked for those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

“The Turing Scheme is truly global in scope, with every country in the world eligible as a destination for UK students, including EU countries.”

Keegan highlighted that the global aspect of the scheme is particularly beneficial to language learners with more countries, cultures and languages within reach for UK participants.

However, some stakeholders have continued to criticise the scheme for its lack of reciprocity and “problematic” funding timeline.

“International mobility is increasing but so is global competitiveness for talent. We are in a global race, not just for talent but for technology. The industries of the future, whether AI, quantum computing, green technology or life sciences, rely not just on having talent in our own countries but on deep and lasting partnerships,” the minister said.

The theme of this year’s forum was ‘New Beginnings: Nurturing Learning Culture, Building Resilience, Promoting Sustainability. Stronger, Bolder, Better Education by Design’ and inspired many remarks about the growing potential of technology’s support for education’s core aims, including those from Keegan about AI used in education settings.

“I know in some countries there is a knee-jerk reaction to AI. It’s going to be the end of mankind as we know it, some cry.”

However, Keegan said that AI is making a difference in schools and universities already and provides far greater scope for “really transformative change”.

The Department for Education recently published a policy paper, outlining its position on generative AI in education.

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AI is going to revolutionise teaching & learning in the same way that it has huge implications for the delivery of healthcare services, but it will never replace teachers, Bill Gates has predicted.

AI technology will, however, become better and better at offering effective and personalised tutoring support, he indicated.

This was one of the core messages delivered by Gates, founder of Microsoft, at the ASU+GSV summit in San Diego this year.

“It’s really about the blend,” he said, as he explained about the power of AI.

“The breakthrough that we have now is to do with reading and writing”

“The breakthrough that we have now, which is fairly recent, is to do with reading and writing,” he continued.

“[AI] has this incredible fluency to say write a letter like this, like Einstein or Shakespeare would have written this thing…  and at least 80% of the time [we are] stunned by it.”

He suggested that AI will be able to provide accurate feedback on improving essays which until now has not been possible.

“I think at first we’ll be most stunned by how it helps with reading, research assistance and giving you feedback on writing. What a good teacher, in terms of taking your essay and marking up and saying, ‘this isn’t clear and  the summary should have included this’, that is a high cognitive exercise and software – except on a really trivial kind of grammar level – has had essentially zero benefit [to date], especially when you get out of a very templated writing exercise.”

Speaking to a room of edtech innovators and investors, Gates drew laughter from the crowd when he observed that making money from edtech “has never been a very easy thing to do”.

But he shared that he wants the benefits leveraged by AI to be able to be accessed equitably.

“The two domains of great interest that over the last six months [where] I’ve been to, you know, so many long meetings where we brainstorm… [have been healthcare and education],” he shared.

“What does this mean for drug discovery, for diseases to look for? What does this mean for health consultations in Africa, where most people live their entire life without meeting a doctor?”

“We can revolutionise that. And the cost of doing it won’t require some unrealistic amount of financing to do it. So overall, in health and education, this should be a leveller because having access to a tutor is too expensive for most students.”

He summarised, “I think in the next 18 months, the AIs will come in as a teacher’s aide and as a feedback on writing.”

Gates predicted the impact of AI on sales jobs and service jobs would be phenomenal and that it would increasingly become incorporated into the classroom.

“The amount of money going into making these things better is absolutely gigantic”

“We can say that based on the version of it we have now. And yet the amount of money going into making these things better is absolutely gigantic. It’s hundreds and hundreds of companies building competitive things and building on top of it.”

Of the tutoring power that AI presents, he said, “It’s really about the blend, how much time do you have with this student, how quickly do they learn these things.”

He posited that AI is also going to be able help with maths as well as reading and writing in time.

“But I wouldn’t say it helps with the motivational piece.”

Tutoring support won’t replace a personal tutor, the gold standard of learning, Gates said.

“The AIs will get to that ability – to be as good a tutor as any human ever could. We have enough sample sets of those things being done well. That is a very worthwhile milestone, to engage in a dialogue where you understand what they are missing…  We don’t have that today.”

He did nod to Khanmigo from Khan Academy, a partner of OpenAI as an interesting pilot and great collaboration. Khan Academy “was brought in at very beginning last fall, right at the time when the new breakthrough [in capability] took place”, he shared.

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UK study travel organisations are building evidence to take to the government in a bid to create a Youth Group Travel Scheme for young learners.

The groups, including British Educational Travel Association, the Tourism Alliance, English UK and other associated networks, are appealing to businesses to explain how they have been impacted by the removal of ID cards on the under-18 group travel market in a survey.

Organisers hope the campaign will help with negotiations with the government to allow groups of young people under 18’s to visit the UK on a single travel document.

The two-minute survey will help to measure the impact and size of the problem, in addition to supporting negotiations between industry and the UK government, they added.

BETA has previously warned that the current rules – introduced since the UK left the EU – risks deterring students from the continent who now need their own passports to enter the country. Prospective learners are opting for competitor countries as a result, stakeholders say.

A Youth Group Travel Scheme is one of nine points that English UK is pressing the government to introduce in order to help the UK ELT industry regain its top position. Additionally, according to the Tourism Alliance, prior to October 2021 the EU was the biggest market for educational travel to the UK.

“We will continue to lose our market share”

Labour MP Rupa Huq has been one of a number of MPs in opposition supporting calls for a scheme to be introduced for young learners from the EU.

“We will continue to lose our market share and, as a lot of business owners, I hear these students are not travelling [to the UK but] travelling to Malta and Israel in particular, and [those countries] really benefit from our own policies,” BETA chair Steve Lowy said at an event in December 2022.

“The UK needs to act now to reverse the movement of youth groups to either to other English-speaking countries as we have risk of links to the UK being irrevocably broken.”

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