| Can a quarter-million of the world's brightest students | | | | makes them highly cost-effective when compared to |
| be wrong? That's one estimate of the number of | | | | the longer time it takes to complete comparable |
| foreign students who forsake the comforts of home | | | | courses of study in other countries, particularly in the |
| and brave the UK's food and, for many, forbidding | | | | US. Also, scholarships and other forms of financial aid |
| weather to get the postgraduate education they | | | | make it possible to for many foreign students to |
| consider the key to a bright future in their homelands. | | | | enter institutions they would not be able to attend |
| The British Council puts the total number of overseas | | | | on their own or their families' resources. Personal |
| students currently studying in Britain - at all academic | | | | support in gaining access to such assistance, |
| levels - at nearly one million, with two-fifths of | | | | overseen by highly trained university administration |
| post-graduate students hailing from other countries. | | | | staffs, helps many foreign students navigate that |
| The British government's increasing recognition of the | | | | thicket of qualifications that sometimes discourage |
| value of this phenomenon to the British economy | | | | them from pursuing this vital source of financial help. |
| overall is likely to increase its efforts to attract these | | | | Furthermore, access to government-funded health |
| students away from competing institutions in other | | | | care contributes greatly to the financial advantages |
| countries and to address the complex student-visa | | | | of studying in the UK. Students in any full-time course |
| laws that most overseas students cite as the | | | | in Scotland and in full-time courses lasting at least six |
| greatest - and often the only - disincentive to | | | | months in England, Wales or Northern Ireland are |
| seeking graduate degrees in the UK. | | | | entitled to free medical treatment from the British |
| Studying in the UK, rather than at comparable | | | | National Health Service. |
| universities and colleges in other countries, clearly | | | | Another advantage of study in the UK is that some |
| remains the first choice of the largest segment of | | | | students can, if they must or wish, work while they |
| the overseas student population. | | | | are pursuing their degrees. Because they are from |
| The principle reason can be summed up in the single | | | | outside the EU, students who are registered is a |
| word the 23-year-old Uzbekistanian Tulkin Sultanov | | | | course of study longer than six months can work as |
| gave the BBC as his reason for pursuing advanced | | | | much as 20 hours a week during term time and |
| studies in the UK: "reputation." Worldwide, UK | | | | full-time during holidays. Students who need to |
| universities are renowned for their high academic | | | | supplement their finances to live as well as study |
| standards, cutting-edge educational facilities | | | | abroad will be happy to know that part-time work is |
| (particularly in the sciences, engineering and the arts), | | | | easy to find. Others may find working part-time a |
| and broad range of offerings combined with the | | | | valuable way of learning more about the local culture |
| flexibility to accommodate individual student needs. | | | | outside the confines of academe. |
| Like many other students who eventually go to the | | | | The UK also offers a unique variety of graduate |
| UK itself, Sultanov was educated in a British school in | | | | academic settings. In addition to the universities and |
| his homeland. As a result, he said, he knew both that | | | | colleges ensconced within Britain's bustling, dynamic |
| British teaching was high-quality, that the professors | | | | cities - which include far more places than London, |
| at British universities had international reputations as | | | | though the capital is unrivaled for its academic, |
| leaders in their fields - and, crucially, that alumni of | | | | cultural, and other offerings - students can choose to |
| British universities enjoyed a level of professional | | | | study on purpose-built countryside campuses, often |
| success on return to their homeland that made them | | | | in areas of singular natural beauty as well. While some |
| the envy of their generation. | | | | foreign students understandably want the |
| UK universities and colleges are continuously | | | | programmes as well as the prestige of Britain's |
| evaluated by professional bodies to ensure that their | | | | famous, time-honored seats of higher education, |
| teaching and research standards and their facilities are | | | | others prefer the more modern, state-of-the-art |
| at the highest standards. The result has been the | | | | universities that have sprung up throughout the |
| more important rating by the rest of the world, | | | | country, sometimes with specific academic |
| which at this point assumes that any British | | | | specialisations, sometimes offering a full range of |
| post-graduate education is top rank. Because | | | | post-graduate programmes. |
| standards are now known to be high at all levels, an | | | | Indeed, exposure to the larger culture is, though |
| unrivaled prestige attaches to a master's or doctoral | | | | often overlooked during considerations of where to |
| degree earned at a British university. | | | | study abroad, one of the strongest reasons for |
| Of the half-million Chinese students studying abroad | | | | choosing the UK as a place to pursue an advanced |
| annually, some 50,000 have chose the UK as their | | | | degree. Exploring the country beyond the university |
| academic destination of choice, together spending an | | | | campus is sure to strengthen English skills and, more |
| estimated £550m a year on their UK | | | | to the point, it does not require learning yet another |
| educations. Twenty-two-year-old Lin Disheng, a | | | | language beyond the international language of English |
| Chinese student featured in another BBC story, | | | | that has become the worldwide academic norm. |
| followed his BS degree from Nottingham University | | | | In addition to the native, local, and popular cultures, |
| (where he earned first-class honors in e-commerce | | | | Britain offers some of the richest examples of |
| and digital business) with a master's degree | | | | Western culture to be found anywhere in Europe - |
| programme at Oxford. Citing China's rapid | | | | and not just in London. Although London plays second |
| industrialisation and economic growth, he told the | | | | fiddle to no other city in Europe in terms of its |
| BBC, "Chinese young people like me want to make a | | | | cultural offerings of all kinds, there are also significant |
| contribution to this rapid process. That's why I want | | | | cultural centres and events in other UK cities, such as |
| to study In the UK - to learn better western | | | | Birmingham, which has one of the world's greatest |
| technologies and experience the western culture and | | | | symphony orchestras, and Edinburgh, a city with an |
| do the best I can." | | | | extraordinarily rich year-around cultural life and a |
| It goes without saying that the students who are | | | | summer festival of all the arts that is one of the |
| accepted into British universities are the top students | | | | world's most renowned. British museums also are |
| of their home countries' top universities. Still, for | | | | considered among the world's finest. |
| most, what amplifies the education they received at | | | | For the more adventuresome, the rest of Europe is |
| home can be summed up in the three words | | | | literally at the doorstep of people living in the UK. |
| independence, creativity and self-reliance. These are | | | | There are affordable ways to travel to the other |
| not only qualities they pick up at the personal level - | | | | countries of Europe - particularly for students - with |
| although the mere process of adapting to, and then | | | | resulting close, easy access to a broad array of other |
| succeeding in, a culture often significantly unlike their | | | | Western cultures, people, and traditions. |
| own gives them a level of self-confidence they might | | | | But even students who find study so demanding that |
| well not even need in their homelands. | | | | it keeps them close to home and allows them little |
| More to the point, a UK graduate education teaches | | | | time for travel will be grateful to be "confined" to a |
| foreign students a kind of independent thinking, | | | | country as famously beautiful as the UK. The British |
| creativity with ideas (most conspicuous in artistic | | | | countryside, villages, and beaches are famous |
| disciplines but as evident in disciplines such as business | | | | worldwide for their surpassing beauty. Travel within |
| and politics - "thinking outside the box" - and even | | | | the country is inexpensive and fast, allowing most |
| science. Most foreign student have come from | | | | visiting students ample opportunities to explore the |
| academic environments that have emphasized rote | | | | UK's riches beyond its university walls. |
| learning and, with the best of intentions, the dutiful | | | | Whatever your motives for choosing to study in the |
| regurgitation to their professors of the teachers' own | | | | UK - and whatever you do to enhance your |
| ideas. Only in an environment that both fosters and | | | | academic experience while there - you can be sure |
| teachers ways of independent thinking do students | | | | of one thing. When you return home, everyone will |
| learn how to generate their own ideas, propose and | | | | be impressed that you earned your degree in a |
| test original solutions to problems, and trust their own | | | | country known throughout the world for the high |
| creative impulses. | | | | quality of its educational offerings. And, with a British |
| British universities also offer well-recognised value for | | | | degree in your pocket (and brain), you'll be in a prime |
| money. Undergraduate degree programmes, for | | | | position to compete for your country's best jobs - |
| example, are typically spread over three rather than | | | | and find the most satisfying way to take part in a |
| four years, and most master's degree programmes | | | | globalised world you have yourself encountered. |
| are designed to be completed in one year. This | | | | |