The Market Monitor Digest (week 07/2025)

It's our pleasure to be your go-to for the week’s key industry news. Thanks to the information collected by the BONARD Market Monitor team, you can now keep your finger on the industry pulse.

February 14, 2025 BONARD Market Monitor Team

International Education

Europe: Students urge five-fold increase in Erasmus+ budget

By Research Professional News, Feb 12, 2025

Union says huge increase is needed to give all students a chance to undertake international mobility. The European Students’ Union wants the budget of the EU’s Erasmus+ programme for academic exchange to be quintupled for the new iteration starting in 2028. A five-fold increase in the budget of the programme, which funds visits abroad for students and other groups, is the only way to enable it to benefit all students and fund new priorities without compromising existing initiatives.

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UK: First increase in UK study visa applications for more than a year

By Times Higher Education, Feb 13, 2025

Home Office data shows a 13 per cent increase in sponsored study visa applications for January. The number of applications for study-related visas has increased for the first time in more than a year, as the UK sector’s international student numbers continue to recover slowly.

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France: International students in France complain about long delays in obtaining residence permits

By Schengen News, Feb 12, 2025

International students in France have encountered long processing times for their residence permits and this situation is impacting their education seriously. Having no residence permit in France makes it impossible for international students to land jobs or get internships. When it comes to accessing financial aid, the share of international students in France and French students who need such assistance is quite high.

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Netherlands: Dutch courses risk ‘disappearing’ as overseas enrolments fall

By Times Higher Education, Feb 11, 2025

International undergraduate enrolments in the Netherlands have dropped by 6 per cent this year compared to the year prior, a decline the umbrella body Universities of the Netherlands has described as “worrying”. The decline comes amid ongoing government efforts to cut international student numbers, largely by reducing English-taught programmes.

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UK & UAE: UK’s renowned Harrow School to open Abu Dhabi branch next year

By The National, Feb 12, 2025

The UK's prestigious Harrow School will open an international campus in Abu Dhabi next year, which will be the emirate's first boarding school. Harrow International School Abu Dhabi is set to open its doors in the middle of next year, with enrolment beginning in October. The school will offer a British curriculum and provide extensive co-curricular programmes to the UAE.

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Belgium: Visa restrictions will put a strain on universities' finances, student union warns

By The Brussels Time, Feb 12, 2025

The new federal government’s proposed student visa restrictions are raising concerns about the financial impact on higher education institutions in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, according to the Federation of Francophone Students. The student union warns that suspending study visas for countries where this route is frequently used for migration purposes will affect the funding of higher education institutions. These restrictions will likely lead to a decrease in the number of international students attending Belgian universities and colleges.

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New Zealand: New Zealand changes prioritisation for onshore student visas

By Study Travel, Feb 10, 2025

Immigration New Zealand (INZ) has announced a change in allocation priorities for onshore student visa applications, with students applying for a new provider or programme to be prioritised. INZ will continue to process offshore student visa applications in date order. The organisation reminded that students who are applying for a student visa from within New Zealand must include their tuition fee receipt upfront with their application.  

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South Korea: Korea to expand educational support for foreign, multicultural students

By The Korea Herald, Feb 11, 2025

  • The Ministry of Education announced that it would provide more resources to enhance public education for students with foreign parents or nationality, particularly in schools with many such students. The Education Ministry’s announcement came as South Korea sees a growing number of foreign and multicultural school students, from 67,000 in 2014 to almost 200,000 in 2024, along with a steep rise in the number of foreign residents.

UK: Unconditional offers fall to lowest level in a decade

By Times Higher Education, Feb 11, 2025

Some institutions still making thousands of unconditional offers every year, using ‘one of the few recruitment levers still left to pull’. Figures from admissions service UCAS show that 30,580 offers with an unconditional component were made in 2024 – down from 37,035 the year before, and 80 per cent below the peak of 156,260 in 2020.

Sri Lanka & India: Sri Lankan students set their sights on Indian universities

By The PIE News, Feb 10, 2025

Prospective international students from Sri Lanka are increasingly looking to India as a high-quality and affordable study destination. Discussions at the New Delhi event centered on India’s growing appeal as a destination for international students and a key partner for global institutions seeking to enhance their internationalisation strategies.

Global: Trump’s USAID shutdown impacts universities worldwide

By University World News, Feb 08, 2025

The Trump administration’s stunning evisceration of the United States Agency for International Development brought an abrupt halt worldwide to the work of an untold number of universities, which serve as one of the US government’s primary conduits for promoting soft power abroad. 

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