Universities may lose students to Scandinavia

Degree courses are increasingly being taught in English – in Scandinavia and the Netherlands, threatening the livelihood of UK universities

University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Photograph: Peter Horree /Alamy

At the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, a course on general literary theory is now served up in English. And at least 4,200 degree courses are now taught only in English in European countries outside the UK and Ireland, a study by the Academic Co-operation Association found last year.

That's triple the number there were seven years ago, say Bernd Waechter and Friedhelm Maiworm, the study's authors.

Almost all these "English-medium" degrees are based in the Netherlands or Scandinavia, with little to report – yet – in southern Europe, francophone Belgium, Austria or the Russian Federation, although Spain's private sector is moving in the direction of its Nordic peers... read more

The Guardian, September 09