Greetings from the team at Bristol International College!

As we move into the summer term, it is with much optimism that life in the U.K continues to return to some kind of normal, with the further lifting of Covid-restrictions and the opening of non-essential shops, bars and restaurants, it is good to see students’ returning to Bristol for their studies and the added vibrancy this brings to our community. We are delighted to provide some much needed positive news.

UK vaccine success attracts overseas students
International students are more likely to want to study at British universities thanks to the success of the vaccine rollout, a survey suggests.

Nearly half (47%) of prospective international students said they would be more likely to choose to study in the UK because of the rate of vaccinations in the country, with nearly a fifth (17%) saying they thought the government was handling the rollout better than anywhere else, according to the survey of 105,083 students planning to attend university abroad. The UK was more popular than the US, Canada, Australia and Germany.

Vivienne Stern, the director of Universities UK International (UUKi), said the survey showed UK universities had remained resilient over the course of a difficult year, but they and the government would need to listen closely to international students’ concerns and priorities to sustain high recruitment levels.

IGCSE exams still going ahead this summer 

Exam boards that run IGCSEs plan to offer them, while many other exams have been stopped by the pandemic.

Pupils in England whose A-levels and GCSEs are cancelled will depend on replacement grades from teachers but Education Secretary Gavin Williamson’s scrapping of exams this summer does not apply to students taking IGCSEs.

The decision not to cancel them was welcomed by the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference (HMC), representing some of the most prestigious independent schools.

The HMC’s general secretary, Simon Hyde, said “The decision to cancel GCSEs was premature. Exams are the fairest way of assessing what learners know and understand and we would like to see as many pupils as possible take a form of exam in the summer.”

Independent schools often offer a mix of IGCSEs and GCSEs for different subjects, although IGCSEs do not count towards school league tables. It will be up to individual schools to decide whether to continue with them.

Bristol University leads the way in sanctuary bursaries

The University of Bristol’s sanctuary bursary was set up to offer the chance of higher education to people fleeing conflict and persecution. Scholar and third year law student Taina Maneus said: “Finally I’m feeling free, like a citizen again.”

Dr Katie Bales, a Senior Lecturer in Law at Bristol University and an expert in migration and welfare, was instrumental is setting up the scholarship programme in 2016. “As a university we were aware that these schemes had been set up, we are not the first, but one of the first,” she said. “The whole student community is proud of the sanctuary programme and the 50 scholarships we’ve awarded so far and everyone contributes to making it a success.”

The feedback the university has had from scholars is that the scheme is “life-changing” meaning those involved “can think about the future again”.
Dr Bales said: “We don’t look at our students through the prism of refugee status but as human beings who want to be educated.”

The criteria for people applying for the scholarship is to receive an academic offer from the university and be from forced migration backgrounds.