InBrief: May + June 2017

In this issue: Brexit's effect on UK universities; drop in Saudi enrollments in the United States; Australia's international enrollment surge; Times Higher Education's ranking of the world's most international universities; Chinese student enrollment in U.S. high schools; Taiwan's bid for more international students; strategies for managing a crisis; and the decline in Middle East applications to the United States.

UK Universities Worry About Brexit

The number of students enrolled in higher education institutions across the United Kingdom (UK) rose 1 percent in 2015–16 to nearly 2.3 million, the Higher Education Statistics Agency reported. Six percent of that total came from other European Union countries and 14 percent from outside Europe. The number from other EU countries rose 2 percent from 2014–15 but university leaders now are deeply worried that many EU students will look elsewhere after the United Kingdom exits the European Union. A parliamentary committee took testimony at Oxford University and University College London (UCL) to hear those concerns. Applications to UK universities from EU students by the mid-January deadline for the next academic year were down 7.4 percent, Michael Arthur, president and provost of UCL, testified. (They were also down 5 percent among domestic UK students.) Applications to UCL were stronger, but Arthur nonetheless invoked his institution’s slogan to add, “‘London’s Global University’ doesn’t look so good if it says, ‘London’s Global University—minus Europe’.… We will miss those students hugely.” Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of Universities UK, said, “Vice chancellors across the country are concerned about the EU numbers.” The