The universities are targeting West and North African countries, where they believe there is a sizeable pool of students suitable to study in the UK.

The institutions believe that the UK has a solid reputation as a destination, enough to attract students from non-traditional markets in Africa where English is not widely spoken or used in schools.

As such, universities and recruiting agencies are targeting countries including Senegal, Ivory Coast and Cameroon, Gabon, Morocco and Algeria as entry points, partly taking cue from French universities under Campus France that in 2023 announced a change of strategy in diversifying their source markets to Anglophone Africa.

Recruiters say that  recent trends on student mobility show that there have been increasing numbers of students from Francophone Africa seeking study opportunities in English-speaking study destinations, in particular in the US and Canada. 

“There has also been a rise in English-taught courses in French-speaking nations as policy changes and economic forces mean there is a recognition that the use of English is a necessity for full participation in today’s globalised economy,” said Emma Tarrant Tayou, director of the international education company Graduate Guidance Group (G3).

While the number of students from Francophone Africa heading to study in the UK have been low, tertiary institutions such the International University of Grand Bassam of Ivory Coast are producing English-speaking graduates keen to explore international opportunities, she said.

“Through conversations with local stakeholders, what we have identified is that a sheer lack of promotion efforts by UK universities have led to students pursuing other options. The lack of local promotion efforts and local support for students with an interest in the UK led to a belief that the UK admissions and [gaining a] student visa are complex processes,” she told The PIE News at an alumni event hosted by her company in Nairobi, Kenya on 10 September

“We therefore identified an opportunity for UK universities to invest in attracting students from these countries through the organisation of schools and university visits as well as open exhibitions,” she added.

A sheer lack of promotion efforts by UK universities have led to students pursuing other options

_{^{Emma Tarrant Tayou, G3}}

She said British embassies have equally been supportive of the efforts, which complement the provision of Chevening scholarships to students from Senegal, Ivory Coast and Morocco.  

“We have also invested in staff based in Ivory Coast and in Gabon to provide ongoing support to students navigating the application and visa processes,” Tayou revealed.

Reduced availability of UK government-approved English language and TB tests mean some students have to travel across borders to take the right tests, with some travelling for earlier visa appointments and speedier processing to neighbouring countries.

“Ivorian students, for example, only have four dates in the month on which to submit visa applications in Abidjan and therefore choose to travel to Accra to submit,” she observed.

G3 partnered with a local English language school in Gabon to open an office in the capital Libreville, offering advice on English language courses and tests as well as on university admissions.

Tayou said: “By bringing the proposal to students in these countries, we are seeing a positive response from students and parents alike. We invite universities to join in visiting these new markets and stimulate the demand further”.

While African students show interest in studying at all levels from undergraduate to masters and PhD courses, in Francophone countries strong interest is registered in undergraduate studies – with the middle classes and elite choosing to enrol their children in international schools offering the British, American, French or IB curricula, she added.

Universities in the UK remain attractive to African students, despite the country being a relatively expensive destination, thanks to the quality of education, student support and reputation for preparing students to be “critical thinkers”.

For the universities to remain attractive, they need to increase support to students from new markets, especially in countries where the universities did not have any representation, and where students struggle with “procedural challenges of arriving in the UK and settling in”, Tayou suggested. 

The University of Kent was already seeing interest from countries including Morocco, Senegal, Algeria and Cameroon, where both English and French are spoken, according to Michael Ijaiyemakinde, an international officer at the university.

The UK is known for its “education acumen”, he said, making it easy for universities to attract a diversity of students from both English and French-speaking regions of Africa. The UK visa application is a “straightforward process”, compared to other Big Four destinations, he believed, which made the destination attractive, he suggested.

“The education offered in the UK is respected all over the world. For Francophone Africa, we only need to know how to navigate the market. The only concern for many people is the cost, and if we could charge an amount close to what French universities charge, we would take the market with ease,” he said.

“The number of applications from the Francophone regions of Africa is slowly growing just the way the numbers from the Middle East have been growing. I believe language is not a barrier big enough for those who want to study in the UK,” he added.

This is especially true, he said, when it is considered that the universities were already admitting students from non-English speaking Asian countries such as Thailand, Singapore, South Korea, Cambodia and China among others.

The education offered in the UK is respected all over the world. For Francophone Africa, we only need to know how to navigate the market

_{^{Michael Ijaiyemakinde, University of Kent}}

The University of Southampton began to venture into the French-speaking sphere by starting to explore the Moroccan market, where it believes a market already exists, said Nadia Gabr, international recruitment manager for Africa, said.

As a university that has students from 135 different nationalities, the institution remains “very inclusive”, and recruiting students from a variety of cultural and lingual backgrounds was part of its strategy, she explained.

Meanwhile, Cardiff Metropolitan University is targeting West African countries of Senegal, Ivory Coast and Cameroon, where a number of international bilingual schools already existed, Deve Omiunu International Student recruitment officer, stated.

The students however needed to meet the international threshold of 6.0 score in ILETS English competence test alongside other qualifications in order to gain admission at the university with the “most employable students in Wales,” he said.

The key to getting a foothold in the market lies in whatever strategies British universities will adopt, according to Lorna Morris, regional recruitment manager for the University of Warwick, who believes the secret lies in providing adequate information to prospective students.