No fear of drop in overseas students despite pandemic restrictions

Bosses at a Lancashire university are hoping to buck the trend and boost their intake of overseas students.
UCLan has a campus in CyprusUCLan has a campus in Cyprus
UCLan has a campus in Cyprus

But, the Chinese students enrolling at the University of Central Lancashire won't have to worry about quarantine rules.. for they will be on home turf.

Although there are no firm numbers yet, the Preston-based institution is hoping it's "in country" model of teaching will save it from the fate of losing oversees cash that many higher education facilities are seeing.

UCLan has a campus in Cyprus and bases in China.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The China system usually see students spending the first two years in their own country then a third year in Preston.

However, as a result of the coronavirus situation it is likely that they will all be tutored in China but will still receive their UCLan degree. UCLan has it's own staff based in China.

A spokesman said: "International applications for 2020/21 have been extremely strong and while income from this cohort is important, we do not rely on it.

"In regard to China we are in a better position than others in the sector because of our unique ‘in country’ teaching model, where Chinese students study on UCLan programmes in China for the first two, or all three, years of their degrees."

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

He added that so far around 0.68 per cent of students have applied to defer coming to the UK and said: "Currently we have nearly 1,500 Chinese students on UCLan programmes being taught in mainland China and while deferrals to take up places in Preston are currently very low there is also potential for these students to remain in country on our franchise provision for their full programme.

“Elsewhere we are in the fortunate position of having our branch campus in Cyprus – with a student population of 1,000 - offering 24 programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate level."