English Universities Losing International Students
International Education May 16, 2014
赴英留學人數近30年來首次下降
海外教育 2014年05月16日
劍橋大學，坐落在英格蘭東部。
Chris Radburn/Press Association, via Associated Press
The number of
international students enrolling in English universities has dropped for
the first time in nearly three decades, interrupting a long-term trend
of double-digit growth.
近30年來，英國大學招收的國際學生人數第一次有所下降，長期以來的兩位數增長就此停滯。
A new report by the
Higher Education Funding Council for England examines recent shifts in
enrollment patterns and discusses their possible causes. The nations
that make up the United Kingdom have individual responsibility for
higher education, and the report addresses only the situation in
England.
英格蘭高等教育基金管理委員會(Higher Education Funding Council for England)的一份最新報告檢視了近期招生形勢的變化，並對可能的原因進行了討論。英國的聯邦國對高等教育是獨立負責的，這份報告所分析的只是英格蘭的情況。
Britain attracts
more international students than any country except the United States
and puts a figure for the overall value to its economy of foreign
currency earnings from higher education at about £10 billion, or nearly
$17 billion.
除了美國之外，英國是世界上吸引國際學生最多的國家，高等教育的總體產值對國民經濟中的外匯收入貢獻良多，達到大約100億英鎊，約合近170億美元。
The report says
that the number of students enrolling in full-time “taught graduate
programs,” which include many master’s programs, declined 1 percent from
the 2010-11 to the 2012-13 academic years. That decline is especially
worrying for institutions because those programs tend to be dominated by
foreign students. According to the report, in 2012-13, 74 percent of
entrants to full-time master’s programs were from outside Britain.
該報告指出，就讀於包括許多碩士項目在內
的全日制「授課式研究生項目」的學生人數在2010-11學年至2012-2013學年之間下降了1個百分點。這對教育機構來說尤其令人擔心，因為讀這些
項目的主要是外國學生。根據報告，在2012-13學年，74%的全日制碩士項目的學生都來自英國以外的國家。
Master’s programs,
which are usually a year long, are often a significant source of income
for universities, as well as a potential future source of teaching staff
members. Their short duration, relative to similar programs elsewhere,
puts British universities under more pressure to maintain international
recruitment levels.
學制一般為一年的碩士項目通常是高校重要的收入來源，也是未來教學團隊的潛在培養基地。它們與其他地方類似項目相比較短的學制讓英國高校在維持國際招生水準方面面臨更多壓力。
According to Janet
Ilieva, the author of the funding council report, a recent analysis by
the council indicates that there is a high progression rate from
full-time taught graduate programs to doctoral programs, so the drop
could be a worrisome sign for future teaching and research capacity.
“The implication is that this is putting the long-term viability of
certain subjects under threat,” she said.
基金委員會這份報告的作者珍妮特·伊利耶
娃(Janet
Ilieva)表示，該委員會最近的一個分析指出，全日制授課式研究生項目的學生有很大可能會繼續在博士項目中深造，所以這些項目的學生人數下降可能是未
來教學與研究人才數量方面一個令人憂慮的信號。「它背後的含義是，某些特定學科的長期發展能力正面臨威脅，」她說。
Another development
the report highlights is a sharp drop in the number of full-time
undergraduate entrants from other European Union countries. Those
students pay the same tuition as domestic British students, for whom the
government caps the amount of tuition that universities can charge.
Their number fell by a quarter in 2012-13, when the tuition cap at most
universities in England rose to £9,000, or around $15,000. The report
identifies the tuition increase as the likely cause of the decline.
報告強調的另一個變化，是全日制本科教育
中其他歐盟國家學生人數的顯著減少。這些學生與英國學生所付的學費相同，不過後者的學費是由政府代繳的。2012-13學年，當英格蘭大多數大學的學費上
漲至9000英鎊，即1.5萬美元左右時，歐盟其他國家學生的人數下降了四分之一。報告認定，學費上漲很可能是學生人數下降的原因。
The last time
international student numbers decreased in Britain was in the early
1980s, when universities began charging international students tuition.
上一次英國招收的國際學生人數下降，還是在上世紀八十年代初期，那時高校剛開始向國際學生收取學費。
The report also
calls attention to the growing numbers of Chinese students at British
universities. They now represent nearly a quarter of all students
enrolled in full-time master’s programs and make up the second-largest
cohort after British students, at 26 percent.
報告還呼籲大家關注在英國大學裡中國學生人數的增長。在全日制碩士項目中，中國留學生如今已經佔到了所有就讀學生的近四分之一，僅次於佔總人數26%的英國本地學生，成為第二大的群體。
That increase has
taken place as the numbers of students from India, Pakistan, and Iran,
which historically sent large cohorts of graduate students to Britain,
have declined. The numbers of students coming from Pakistan and India
have halved since 2010, even as entries from other countries have
increased, according to the report.
在中國生源增長的同時，歷史上曾經在英國研究生人群組成中佔據較大份額的印度、巴基斯坦與伊朗學生的人數有所下降。根據這份報告，來自巴基斯坦和印度的學生自2010年起減少了一半，儘管來自其他國家的新生人數有所上升。
Those developments
paint a worrying picture for British universities, which seem to have
borne the brunt of a confluence of events. “We can’t point to
causality,” Ms. Ilieva said, but the timing of the shifts suggest some
factors that might be at play.
這些變化為英國大學描繪了一幅前途堪憂的景象，它看上去是一系列事件共同衝擊造成的後果。「我們無法明確指出因果關係，」伊利耶娃說，但這些變化所處的時間點表明，有些因素可能在其中起到了一定作用。
Immigration, for
one, has become a contentious political issue in Britain in recent
years, and the government’s efforts to limit immigration figures have at
times conflicted with the aims of universities. Universities UK, the
lobbying organization for vice chancellors, has opposed the government’s
approach to immigration, warning that including students in migration
figures would be detrimental to universities.
比如說移民問題，近年來在英國一直都是頗
受爭議的政治議題，政府限制移民人數的努力經常會與高校的目標有所衝突。英國大學組織(Universities
UK)是大學校長組成的一個遊說組織，它對政府的移民政策持反對意見，該組織警告道，把學生包含在移民統計人數內的做法對大學來說十分不利。
Policy revisions,
such as the elimination of work entitlement for foreign students at
private institutions, a move designed to curb abuses by bogus
institutions, also had an effect on international enrollments.
對一些政策進行修訂，比如說減少對私立學校的留學生頒發工作簽證，本意是限制假冒學校濫用政策，但它對海外招生也有一定的影響。
Those shifts, all
of which may have suggested to international students that Britain was
becoming less hospitable to foreigners, coincided with efforts among
Britain’s main competitors for foreign students to ease the path for
them.
對國際學生來說，這些改變也許都表明，英國對外國人越來越不友好了，而與此同時，英國的主要競爭者們則都在努力為留學生申請入學的道路掃清障礙。
Commenting on the
funding council report, Nicola Dandridge, the chief executive of
Universities UK, noted that at a time of growing international demand
for higher education, “we should be seeing a significant rise in
international recruitment figures, given the global standing of our
universities. At the same time, competitor countries, who are actively
promoting policies to encourage international students, have seen rises
in international-student numbers.”
在評價基金委員會這份報告時，英國大學組
織執行主席尼科拉·丹德里奇(Nicola Dandridge)指出，這一切都發生在國際上對高等教育的需求增長的時代，「鑒於英國大學在全球的地位，
我們本來應該看到國際招生數量的顯著增長。而在同一時間，與我們競爭的國家在切實地推行鼓勵國際學生的政策，因此他們真切地看到了國際學生人數的增長。」
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翻譯：吳靜
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