Are you an international considering studying in the UK from 2023? If so, there is much to think about as various UCAS deadlines approach and the decision about what and where to study comes into focus.
Employment prospects are one of the key things to consider when deciding where to study, and UK university graduates have a strong track record of finding employment after leaving university. Dedicated Careers Service teams provide advice and help you research career pathways and employers. They also organise recruitment fairs and workshops on how to write CVs and perform well at interviews.
Below, we have broken down why you should consider the UK as your preferred study destination. To begin your application, arrange a free consultation with SI-UK London today.
Why Study in the UK?
UK’s employment focus
A key consideration for prospective international students considering studying in the UK is the practical, employment-focused approach of UK universities, whose annual rankings depend a lot on alumni career successes which are being assiduously measured.
Some countries’ universities concentrate on the theoretical and academic side of a subject rather than how it works in the real world of work; students worrying about the job market are expected to fend for themselves with online searches, family contacts, and individual initiative, and they may graduate with an impeccable grasp of intellectually sophisticated subjects that they do not know how to apply in a useful way to a logistical problem to make money in a commercial context, and so have to be trained from scratch by employers reluctant to hire such novices.
UK universities, by contrast, tend to tailor their curricula to the specific demands of the workplace so that what students have learned in class is immediately relevant to their subsequent careers. UK universities cultivate industry links and offer degrees that involve work placements where students can put into practice what they learned theoretically in lectures.
International students who graduate from UK universities can expect to find work in a flexible, local labour market for which this country is famous and contrasts favourably with many countries that are nepotistic or bureaucratic in recruiting inexperienced, unnetworked job-seekers. It is as easy to imagine an Italian or French person – of average ability and influence – graduating and then professionally thriving in a long-term, graduate-level career in the UK as it is difficult to imagine a British person doing the same across the British Channel (though obviously exceptions can be made for exceptionally high performers such as scientists and bankers, who can find work anywhere).
Structural youth unemployment in much of Europe contrasts with the dynamism of the UK environment where – notwithstanding media gloom about inflation, which is applicable everywhere – employers are delighted to hire foreign students who have the relevant skills that UK universities have so thoroughly taught them.
UK tertiary education is used to catering to the needs and wishes of its international students and has many centuries of experience in this regard. One index of the prestige of UK university teaching is the volume of tourism all year in Oxford and Cambridge, two of the best universities in the UK.
Cheaper and quicker degrees
Another key consideration is cost and time. UK universities provide degrees that are cheaper than USA degrees and take less time than most other countries’ degrees. A UK undergraduate degree typically takes three years, whereas abroad, it typically takes at least four years.
A UK master’s degree normally takes one year; abroad, it usually takes two. UK degrees may be more expensive than their equivalents in continental Europe. Still, the former offers the adventure of living, studying, socialising, growing, and working in an exciting new country instead of just staying at home under the parental roof.
Study in the UK
If you want to study in the UK, begin your application today by arranging a free consultation.