BridgeU In Brief: w/c 12th December

The British Council has launched an agent training and engagement hub that's designed to help global education advisers better understand the UK as an international study destination.

This announcement comes off the back of recommendations from UKCISA and BUILA, who recommended the establishment of an agency framework to help improve standards and transparency between UK higher education providers and agents.

The new training hub will improve transparency for students and parents. Students and their parents will be able to check if their agent has the right level of knowledge via a public-facing searchable database of certified agents.

According to the British Council's website, some of the topics covered in the new training hub will include

• Why choose the UK?
• The UK education system
• Preparing students for a UK education
• Student experience

While BridgeU's platform allows universities to connect with international schools, as opposed to agents, this new framework is a brilliant example of how greater collaboration and standardisation can help to improve transparency and ease of access for international students - and the work we do to build partnerships between schools and universities

If our various surveys and reports of the international schools sector have taught us anything in 2023, it's that students need the application process to be as seamless and open as possible.

Indeed some of the topics we've listed above mirror some of the topics that students can learn about in BridgeU's in-app content library. In making certified agents better brand ambassadors for the UK, the British Council are taking an important step in making sure that students' needs and aspirations are at the heart of universities' strategic partnerships.

It will be exciting to see if other countries follow suit in the coming months and years.

What's new at BridgeU

• Don't forget it's not too late to join the waiting list to get the 2023 edition of our International Recruitment & Admissions Calendar when it's released in January.
• How can you better align your enrolment activities to align with international students' decision making in the coming months? We've updated our ultimate guide to steer you through the coming months.

What's caught our eye this week

• You can read more about the new British Council agents' training hub here.
• France is the latest country to publish research on the economic benefits of international student mobility, with a new survey revealing they contribute up to €5 billion to the French economy.

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