Measuring international students' expectations, motivations and satisfaction levels has become big business in Britain, as concern grows among recruiters over increasing competition from around the globe. Two pioneering initiatives have been launched in Britain that between them will canvass the opinions of over 100,000 students a year on what universities in the UK have to offer and how good they are at delivering the kind of education and service today's students want.

Last week, the International Graduate Insight Group (i-graduate) unveiled what it called a 'unique' study that will compare the expectations and actual experiences of both British and foreign students at all levels of higher education across the country.

The Wales Student Barometer will gather the opinions of up to 60,000 students across 10 Welsh universities and colleges. i-graduate will benchmark the results of the survey so that each university can see how its ability to match student expectations compares with other groupings of institutions, not only in Wales but also across the rest of the world.

The study was launched as i-graduate began to analyse responses from more than 100,000 students from over 90 countries. These were gathered by its International Student Barometer, described by the company as "the first truly global benchmark of the student experience".

William Archer, i-graduate director, said the growing popularity of the Barometer process, with over 60 participating institutions in Britain alone, showed that universities and colleges now recognised how important it was to "listen to the voice of the learner".

"Because of the intensifying competition for students and the growing importance of word-of-mouth recommendation, institutions need hard data on how they are performing against expectations – where they excel and where they need to do things better," Archer said.

Another initiative, announced last week by the British Council, will also survey international student opinion, putting this information together with economic and demographic information from the Economist Intelligence Unit to provide snapshots and forecasts showing how regional markets are developing and are expected to change.

The council has warned that one of the greatest threats to the UK's market share is the emergence of countries like Singapore as a cheaper high-quality study destination for students from the region.

Pat Killingley, director of the council's marketing arm Education UK, said: "The straightforward international recruitment approach of just pulling students in is becoming less sustainable. But different models of working in partnership with overseas institutions are emerging fast, which is one of the things we want to track."


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