5 education trends to watch

Education is ever-evolving and with that in mind here are a few things that you should be aware of over the course of 2023.

Study abroad is back with a bang

The global pandemic made studying abroad impractical. The expense of studying in hot destinations such as the UK, US or Australia didn’t change, but students spent months studying online or marooned away from friends and families back home. Many families deferred their decision to study abroad but now are turning back to travel. This means students who previously considered boarding school are now applying for undergraduate degrees, and former undergraduate prospects are the next generation of master’s applicants. Study abroad is firmly back on the agenda.

Multi-country applications on the up

The past two years have seen an exponential rise in students seeking to apply to multiple countries at the same time. Far from hedging their bets, this shows an acute awareness of the risks of putting all your eggs in one basket in this new era of health and political instability. It is now common for students to apply to the UK, US and Europe all in the same cycle. Whilst this keeps options open, it undoubtedly increases the workload, something that students who are struggling with their current studies or grades should be aware of.

Narrowing curriculums

For schools around the world that have lost hundreds of hours of class time over the past three years, it has come as quite a shock to many that the exams their students will face will not be made any easier as a result. What is the result? Top schools are narrowing the curriculums they are teaching to focus more closely on the upcoming exams. Topics that overlap, such as physics and maths, are favoured by some schools who believe that this will reinforce the learning opportunities for students studying both subjects.

Short courses explode

If studying abroad full time is enjoying a come-back, the recovery in short course study such as summer schools has been nothing short of meteoritic. Numbers are such large that many providers in the UK are scrambling to increase their offerings or else place caps on student applications early. If you’re thinking about taking a short course, it’s a good time to get a booking!

Interdisciplinary subjects come to the fore

The rise of interdisciplinary subjects and curriculums continues at all levels of education. At the university level, more universities are exploring joint honours programmes, or launching new degrees that borrow content from multiple faculties. Even in primary schools, we can see this trend in action through the growth in the International Primary Curriculum (IPC). Through the IPC students learn in topic-based modules rather than the stricter structure of lessons in history, geography and science that might be more familiar.