Letter from London Localised expansion option Recently there has been a rash of reports in the media highlighting novel ways in which universities are ramping up student enrollments and advertising their study courses. Several newspapers played up a British universities scholarship scheme for Indian students under which thousands of Indian students are expected to compete for five scholarships in a television reality show. The five winners will be admitted into the universities of Leeds, Sheffield, Warwick, Cardiff or Middlesex, with each institution waiving its fees and residential accommodation charges. It sounds like a great prize and by all accounts the universities involved are delighted with the arrangement. Comments Prof. Matthew Holley head of biomedical sciences at Sheffield University: “The scholarship programme will provide a very exciting opportunity for our faculty to build stronger collaborative links with India which should bring substantial mutual benefits in both teaching and research.” As universities compete desperately to attract foreign students, develop collaborative projects and increase their research output, this innovative idea seems to tick all the boxes. Nearer home Anglia Ruskin University, which has its headquarters in Chelmsford, Essex, has been shopping abroad for new advertising models to increase student intake numbers and disseminate information about study programmes. It has focused on Penn State, one of America’s most successful publicly funded state universities. Learning at Penn means “widening participation, distance learning, online learning and spin-out companies” — areas into which Mike Thorne, vice-chancellor of Anglia Ruskin, would like to expand. Although it’s not well known, Anglia Ruskin has an aggregate 28,000 students, many of whom are adults who have to fit their studies around family and work. Penn State found that the best way to ensure a steady stream of students is to develop a network of local campuses, where students can conveniently complete a full degree programme in a local centre, without incurring expensive accommodation costs, child care or extended travelling time. In eastern England this model could prove a way forward for Anglia Ruskin, whose catchment area is broad and widely scattered. This example of expansion at local levels may be ideal for institutions looking to increase annual intake. Accommodating large numbers of students away from home causes housing and other problems Now that sophisticated distance learning technologies have evolved, studying in local centres may be a more practical way to study nearer home, although having said that, almost all institutions seem anxious to recruit more international students. How these two objectives can be reconciled will become clearer in due course. (Jacqueline Thomas is a London-based academic) Japan Tokyo University looks outwards Tokyo University is on a mission to strengthen its international profile and “establish itself as a hub for sustainability science”, says Hiroshi Komiyama, its president. “Tokyo University is arguably the best in Japan but is not known outside,” adds Prof. Komiyama. Three years ago, the university became an ‘independent’ entity — free from state control — giving it greater financial flexibility to build new facilities and forge strategic ties with institutions around the…
