The global rise of pathway programmes – EAIE 2016

We’ve written a lot about pathway programmes, usually from a student perspective. During the annual EAIE conference in Liverpool, our CEO – Edwin van Rest – led a session on the global rise of pathway programmes together with some very interesting speakers: Michael Bartlett from Cambridge English,  Claudia van den Bos from University of Amsterdam and Arnold Persoon from Study Group. During the presentation, we didn’t just discuss the latest insights regarding pathway programmmes, but also addressed the implications for European universities considering introducing such programmes, with a real life example of University of Amsterdam and the first ever pathway programme within the Netherlands.

If you’re not yet familiar with this new development in the education sector, a pathway programme is an official course (endorsed/provided by a higher education institution) intended to help grant access to that institution’s graduate or undergraduate programmes, for international students who:

• have not met one or more of the admissions criteria for an institution, such as the English language requirement.
• are otherwise not considered ready to begin their undergraduate or postgraduate degree.

For our latest report in collaboration with Cambridge English on this growing trend, we analyzed 2,275 programmes of which 79% were pre-bachelor and 21% pre-masters with the majority of the programmes hosted in the USA, UK and Australia. Pathway programmes don’t just benefit students interested in gaining access to higher education, but can also be increasingly beneficial for their universities.

How do pathway programmes benefit institutions?

Universities gain from pathway programmes in a number of ways:

• Pathway programmes provide universities with students who are well prepared to be successful in their studies and who will graduate.
• Create a clear path for international students to enter their institution encourages increased diversity of the student body.
• Universities gain from international student tuition fees.

 How can universities implement pathways programmes?

A good example of the implementation of a pathway programme is the University of Amsterdam, which introduced the first pathway programme within the Netherlands. Since 2012, the university offers an on-campus pre-bachelor programme, in collaboration with the Cambridge Education Group. During the session at EAIE, Claudia van den Bos, representing UvA, explained that the beginning was not the easiest, as the collaboration with a 3^rd party agency was controversial at first. Some of the main concerns that the university had about the programme included:

• loss of control over student admissions
• the quality of the education students would be provided with
• reputation damage if the programme doesn’t succeed.

It’s safe to say that it took some time to get used to the idea of a pre-bachelor course. Also, more practical factors such as legal aspects, classrooms, staff and the student registration were something to be considered and needed an initial investment of additional time and resources. To complicate matters even more, to add to this, UvA only had 6 months to arrange it all before the first students were expected on campus!

Did the hard work pay off? Definetely! Now UvA stands strong against the rising competition in markets for international students. UVA is now also better equipped to increase its classroom diversity with ‘new’ countries. The number of intakes for the pathway programme as also increased significantly over the years, as well as the different nationalities of UvA students. As Claudia van den Bos mentioned, the added value of collaborating with an external pathway provider are the existing sales and the marketing network.

If you are interested in more details on how UvA implemented the pre-bachelor programme, check the slides that were used during the session at EAIE Liverpool.

How about the pathway providers?

On behalf of Study Group Arnold Persoon also shared his experiences during the session at EAIE. Study Group is an independent pathway provider that is already cooperating with 16 universities of the world 200. Arnold discussed some of the challenges they have encountered while setting up pathway programmes in Europe:

• the legal aspects and various country regulations
• limited regulations regarding pathway programmes were available, so no one was really sure how to be ‘compliant’.
• visa & residence permit regulations
• creating an efficient admissions process can be a challenge.

Likewise, creating and managing a brand and an evolving product was something that was a challenge for Study Group at first, especially since the partnerships change and adapt depending on the university preferences as well. In the end, establishing a pathway programme in a new country is definitely not easy, but very much worth the effort. To see if this is something for you, check out some points on Arnold’s slides!

What’s next for pathway programmes? 

Based on the fact that the number of international students is continually growing, we expect that the demand for the programmes will also continue to grow. Moreover, the type of pathway programmes and quantity are expected to continue to rise in the coming years. We also believe that the coming years will see an increased diversity in subjects, and that the programmes will begin to appeal to a wider student population.The US and continental Europe are very likely to continue introducing a growing number of pathway programmes.

There are some alternative models being explored besides the traditional ones, that Michael Bartlett from Cambridge English touched upon in his part of the presentation. Some universities are making innovations by developing direct partnerships with institutions in the target countries from which they recruit students, or opening their own branches in those countries. This enables students to access the same pathway programmes provided overseas, without leaving their own countries. Successful completion then gives them access to the institution’s undergraduate programmes.

Another ‘hybrid’ model has also been adopted by some institutions, whereby instead of outsourcing their pathway programmes to one of the ‘big six’ providers, they are run by a separate, wholly owned commercial entity set up by the institution.

Other institutions are now offering an ‘International Year One’ where students get additional support during the first year of their undergraduate programme, to make their transition to international higher education even smoother.

Pathway programmes might not be easy to set up, but they do prove to benefit students, universities and the pathway providers, meaning that for some universities they may be the right investment, especially if they have a strong focus on international students and classroom diversity.

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