Brazil’s brightest turn to US after failing language test

More than 100 students who had planned to go to UK universities under Brazil's Science Without Borders scheme have gone to the US after failing to meet language requirements set by the UK Border Agency (UKBA), writes Elizabeth Gibney for Times Higher Education.

Under the scheme, which over four years aims to send abroad 100,000 of Brazil's best undergraduates and postgraduates, a number of the students who passed international English-language tests did not do so at the level the UKBA requires.

Some 130 Science Without Borders scholars originally destined for the UK chose to take up places in the US rather than retake the language exams, which could have delayed their studies, Helena Gasparian, head of the Cultural and Academic Section at the Brazilian Embassy in London, told Times Higher Education.
Full report on the Times Higher Education site