International News Desk – At Home and Abroad

At Home: New Scholarship Prompts Student Exchange
The first round of the Canadian Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholarships, the first major scholarship program to be introduced in years, has been allocated to 37 Canadian universities across the country.

Introduced in 2014, the scholarship will be given to both undergraduate and graduate students to allow them to study abroad or take part in overseas internships according to University Affairs. With a total value of approximately 40 million, about 80% of the money will be earmarked for Canadian students while the rest is to allow international students to study in Canada.

Around the Globe: Going Mobile for Work
The PIE News is reporting on a recently released study that found students who are mobile in their education tend to have better employment prospects. The study, conducted on behalf of the UK Higher Education International Unit, found that the differences were particularly noticeable for students who were studying STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) subjects, with the unemployment rate being 5.2% compared to 6.1% for their counterparts who did not take place in an exchange programme or a work or study abroad placement.

For those from a disadvantaged background, the difference was even higher with non-mobile disadvantaged students having a 7.6 unemployment rate rather than the 5% unemployment rate held by their mobile counterparts.

Unemployment wasn’t the only factor, as the study also found wages were higher for students in 11 out of 17 of the subject areas looked at by the study. So grab that scholarship and get out there!

And when it comes to post-secondary, the difference is even starker, with campuses in America, Britain and parts of Scandinavia having 50% more women than men, and some countries are even starting specific programs to encourage more males to attend post-secondary.