FINANCING YOUR OVERSEAS STUDIES

HSBC Premier To Assist With Overseas Education Planning 

HSBC expects growing affluence in Asia's emerging economies to further boost aspirations for international studies amongst students in the region.

Nearly 2.5 million young Asians are expected to study overseas in 2020, up by 141 per cent from 2008.

Over six in 10 of Asia's international students will be from mainland China and India, whose overseas student population are estimated to grow by 138 per cent and 188 per cent, respectively in 2020 from 2008.

Dayangku Hamidah Pengiran Haji Othman, Acting Head of Retail Banking and Wealth Management, HSBC Brunei, said, "Comprising over a third of the global international student population, Asian students will continue to flock to traditional overseas learning destinations such as the US, UK and Australia.

"However, we expect the trend towards greater intraregional education to strengthen in the coming years with China, India and Singapore as emerging destinations."

HSBC anticipates growing demand for international studies to significantly impact the way Asian families save and manage their finances in the future.

Dayangku Hamidah added, "Without sufficient planning and preparation, many Asian families may find themselves financially challenged as their aspirations of sending children overseas to study grow.

"HSBC Premier sees a huge opportunity to support families in this journey: From saving early towards an education fund, to preparing for school and departure as well as ensuring day-to-day financial support overseas."

HSBC Premier provides a range of services to facilitate and assist families planning for overseas education.

These include:
- Prior to departure, HSBC can facilitate arrangements to open an overseas bank account to help the child settle in more easily in the new city;
- At any time, free fund transfers can be made between your HSBC Premier accounts via Global Transfer to cover overseas financial needs and any other unexpected expenses while your child is abroad;
- In case of emergency such as lost card and belongings, emergency cash of up to US$2,000 or the local currency equivalent can be made available.

Between now up until August 31, customers who sign-up for HSBC Premier package will receive 13 lucky draw chances to stand a chance of winning weekly lucky draw prizes of lifestyle vouchers for dining, shopping, travel, gadget and furniture worth between $100 to $500.
In addition, these customers will also stand a chance to drive away a luxurious Mercedes-Benz new generation C180 CGI BIueEFFICIENCY, the grand draw prize of The Gourney campaign.

HSBC Premier has also recently launched a comprehensive overseas education online platform via www.hsbcpremier.com.bn.

This new platform provides useful information such as country and education guides, university rankings, education agents' exposition and seminar schedules and pre-departure check-lists.

Meawhile, Rohani Haji Mohd Salleh, Manager Premier Centre, HSBC Brunei said, "Saving for children's education is among our customers' top wealth priorities.

HSBC Premier Relationship Managers are well equipped to develop a tailored wealth plan for their children's education goal.

HSBC Premier helps take care of customers' overseas financial needs, allowing them to focus on their children's studies and early adjustment into a new environment." -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

OVERSEAS STUDENTS in UK ; Taking a turn to " WHOLLY OVERSEAS STUDENTS"

Statistics show that in 2009-10, 310,525 students were studying at overseas institutions for first degrees certificated by UK universities, compared with 1,421,490 studying at universities in the UK.

Including postgraduates, of the 408,685 students studying for UK qualifications overseas, only 11,410 were on branch campuses of British universities in 2009-10. The remaining 397,275 students were studying through collaborative provision, either a franchise arrangement at a local institution (282,185), or through distance learning (115,010), or through other arrangements (80).

The figures point to a booming market in the franchising of curricula and learning material by UK universities to overseas partners.

The funding bodies instructed Hesa to begin collecting data on these students because they had become increasingly aware of the steady rise in their numbers over the previous 10 years.

The 2009-10 figures were up almost 10,000 on the previous year.

Percepts from: The Guardian

STUDIES @ UK

Overseas British Studies: it's about more than just a piece of paper

Working with Higher Education Statistics Agency (Hesa) figures, the Guardian Higher Education Network has calculated that 18% of students who are working towards first degrees with a UK university are doing so wholly overseas.

In 2009-10, 310,525 undergraduates were studying abroad for a qualification certified by a UK university, compared with 1,421,490 studying in the UK.

Some of these overseas students are studying at one of the 13 branch campuses of UK institutions, but the majority are studying at local institutions through franchise arrangements. For every branch campus there are many more local colleges that have entered into twinning or franchising arrangements with UK institutions. In these arrangements the UK institution supplies a curriculum, learning materials and quality assurance while the local partner provides the regional infrastructure and employs local staff to teach the UK material.

Stephen Doughty, vice-provost at Nottingham's 41 hectare (100 acre) Malaysian campus, is sceptical about twinning arrangements, questioning the worth of the education they provide. While they may have the Nottingham course material, they don't have the same ethos towards teaching and so don't deliver it in the same way. "The Malaysian education system is not quite rote learning but is very rigid, based on books; there is no questioning," he says.

"The person standing up at the front is right and you listen to them, and we work hard to knock that out of students and say look, question me, question what I'm saying. Trying to get them to do that is a challenge. If students haven't got that real UK experience then all they've got is a bit of paper"

Doughty makes the point that these arrangements often turn out to be temporary and as such they don't help in the development of a resilient local infrastructure. He says that franchises make it "very easy for the UK institution to extract themselves … If something happens in that country they can just pull the plug and be out of there very, very quickly with no resource implication. You've seen our campus, we're not in and out of here, we're here to stay."

CEO and provost Ian Pashby admits that there was some initial trepidation: "I suspect that there was a lot of uncertainty in the early days, it was very adventurous, and I know that in the early stages it was tough. Nobody else had done this here, so the system here didn't really know how to deal with us, we didn't know how to deal with them."

But Nottingham's senior management is now very pleased with where they are at. In the past five years the Malaysian branch campus has grown from 950 to 4,000 students. The current plan is to increase numbers by between 300 and 400 each year. "We've got a plan for about 5,000 students by 2015," Pashby says.

Nottingham aims to do this largely by introducing new subjects. The main disciplines on the Malaysian campus "have a very strong, direct link to a career," Pashby says, and almost half of students are studying engineering, pharmacy or business. "That's what people want to see and they're big schools," say Pashby. "We could increase our numbers just by increasing the number of engineers, but we don't want to do that, we want to become more comprehensive."

"There is probably a limit to the range of subjects that will be successful out here, but we are learning all the time. We don't expect schools such as international relations to be on the same scale as chemical engineering but you never know."

Nottingham's decision to open a branch campus in Malaysia was prompted by Najib Razak, the prime minister, who wants to turn Malaysia into the educational hub of the region. 40% of Nottingham's students in Malaysia are from outside the country.

Pashby says the fastest growing market is central Asia, places like Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. The market for students from India has always been strong with large numbers of students also applying from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. He also sees potential in the Middle East, and applications from China and Vietnam remain strong.

Nottingham's Malaysian campus has the benefit that it can apply for funding from more than one region. Doughty says: "EU funding is quite interesting because we are viewed as both a UK and an Asian institution so we can pitch to whichever suits us best."

UK branch campuses rely almost entirely on tuition fees and Nottingham's Malaysian campus is 98% funded by fees. "Students come with their money and they pay us. We don't get money from the government. We don't get money from the UK. Hefce [the Higher Education Funding Council for England] money certainly can't come here. So it's all about fee paying students," Doughty says. "Five years ago that was very different to the UK, but now, actually, it's going to be very similar."

 Percept from : The Guardian

PLANNING OVERSEAS

Plan well before your overseas course starts

Today, more and more children are travelling abroad for their studies. You need a fix on the tuition fees, accommodation and living expenses -- else the budget can skyrocket. Your child will be busy preparing for his final Board or University examinations, but his decision is already made, as application deadlines are already past. So, this is some homework for you, parent!

Get a realistic fix on all the fees payable

The tuition fees shared by the institution will be at previous year levels. Our assumption that inflation rates are lower in developed countries will go horribly wrong, as education expenses rise by 7-9% for most international institutions. A similar rise must be assumed for accommodation charges as well. While budgeting for accommodation (most universities will have on-campus options), take into account that your child may wish to reside in a self-contained unit and not a dormitory in the first year at least.

Living Expenses

It may be useful to talk to experienced parents, preferably from the same University, to understand how to estimate living expenses. A recent traveler and someone whose lifestyle you relate to may obviously present a more realistic picture. Remember to take into account cost of the food plan, purchase of books, cell phone costs, gifts for friends, cost of movies, local and national transport costs; including those for going to the movies, and travelling to the airport and back when taking flights home – don’t forget the cost of the flights itself. It will be beneficial to encourage your child to work within a budget. I for one agreed for my son to come home this Easter only after he offered to share the air ticket cost: feel glad that he understands the value of money.

Currency

The most critical aspect of managing overall costs of overseas education will depend on foreign currency movement. 

You will need to evaluate the benefit of transferring funds now at a rate which seems beneficial with the lower rate of interest that you will earn on money sitting in your son’s bank account abroad. For a start, read up on the past movements of the currency and the factors that affect its movement. Individuals too can take forward cover on the currency to avoid facing surprises; but I, for one, would rather use this opportunity to learn how the Indian Rupee moves against foreign currencies. What about you?

AURA OVERSEAS