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French is the official language of a number of West African international locations, together with Senegal, the Ivory Coast, Benin and Burkina Faso, however there’s a rising demand and focus for English language studying in lots of of those international locations.
New oil and gasoline tasks are anticipated to spice up the already fast-growing economies of each Senegal and the Ivory Coast and the international locations are seeing important funding from multinational corporations, a few of whom function in English.
Brokers imagine it will enhance curiosity in finding out overseas in Anglophone locations, as younger individuals need to enhance their language and educational abilities in an effort to safe jobs in these industries.
However Jamie Hastings, director at MYiO training company, believes the UK must do extra to spice up its model presence within the area.
Some 240 college students from the Ivory Coast and Senegal studied at UK universities in 2021/22, in line with HESA information. Compared virtually 1,500 college students from these international locations studied within the US in the identical yr and over 6,000 in Canada in 2023, the place they will select between English and French programs.
Nevertheless, securing visas has been a problem for African college students in each Canada and the USA lately. American visa refusal charges for college students in West Africa hit 71% in 2022, in line with information from Shorelight.
Hastings mentioned that the scholars he had recruited from these international locations to UK universities had not skilled any visa points.
He added he had seen extra curiosity in undergraduate research amongst these college students in comparison with greater African markets like Nigeria and Ghana – a spotlight space for a lot of UK universities struggling financially.
Because of restricted English language abilities, he mentioned many are taking a look at pre-sessional English programs.
“The numbers are small however they develop and so they develop”
Hastings believes Francophone Africa ought to be a spotlight space for UK universities seeking to diversify each the place college students come from and the extent they’re finding out at.
“It’s important to begin someplace,” he mentioned. “The numbers are small however they develop and so they develop.”
Emma Tayou Tarrant, director at Graduate Steering Group, mentioned college students within the area “recognise the tutorial excellence of British universities and the long-term profession advantages which include having studied within the UK” however felt the applying course of was “not simple”.
SUB Afrique, an company operated by Hasting and Tarrant, is trying to handle this by organising a commerce mission for British universities to the Ivory Coast and Senegal this November.
Universities together with Oxford Brookes, Portsmouth and Queen’s College Belfast are set to attend. They may meet potential college students, mother and father and authorities departments. That is the second journey the company has organised this yr.
“We’re happy to have the ability to demystify the method and convey universities to fulfill college students of their dwelling cities,” mentioned Tarrant.
Catherine Brooker, British Ambassador to Côte d’Ivoire, spoke concerning the “wealth of alternatives” for the UK’s larger training sector within the nation.
“College students, with the help of their households, are very excited about finding out within the UK or reaching UK {qualifications},” Brooker added.
“Universities in Côte d’Ivoire are eager to determine partnerships with British universities in order that they will broaden their supply to Ivorian and worldwide college students. Though a Francophone nation, there are bilingual and English talking universities in Côte d’Ivoire.”
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