International students choose Bradford for employment prospects and affordability

The latest International Student Barometer (ISB) results placed the university 2nd in the UK for its finance office, 4th for employment and careers service and 5th for networking opportunities and counselling. Student support services received a 95% satisfaction rating.

ISB is the leading independent benchmarking tool for tracking the international student experience, using feedback from over 122,000 international students across 137 universities in 25 countries (including 35 in the UK).

Claire Pryke, Associate Director Outreach, Recruitment and Admissions, said: “The University of Bradford consistently does well in the ISB report and this year is no different. At a time when many people are quite rightly considering living costs, we stand out as a university that offers affordable accommodation, while still providing excellent tuition, support and job prospects, as reflected in these results.

“Interestingly, 83% of respondents said they would encourage people to apply for a place at Bradford. While we are constantly striving to improve, these results reflect the hard work of staff and our commitment to our vision of being the place to be to make a difference.”

The University has previously been ranked 1st on the Higher Education Policy Institute’s Social Mobility Index three years running. Its Distance Learning MBA was ranked 1st in the world for value for money by the Financial Times in March. In 2023, Bradford was named the most affordable university city by Moneysuperket.com.

The ISB 2023 results for the University of Bradford included:

• No 2 in the UK for Finance Office

• No 4 in the UK for Careers Service and employment

• No 5 in the UK for living costs, learning spaces, visa advice, counselling, networking with alumni and welcome / pick-up

• No 9 in the UK for value for money 

• 95% satisfaction with the Support Services 

• 95% satisfaction with the arrival experience 

Responses were collected between September 2023 and December 2023. The survey achieved a 44% response rate, an increase of 3% compared to 2022.

Bespoke ISB

This year, the University of Bradford also opted to take part in a ‘bespoke’ ISB ranking system against nine local competitors. The total number of responses collected across all 10 institutions (incl. Bradford) for this benchmarking exercise was 11,886 of which 1,422 were from Bradford.

Highlights included

• 1st for Finance Office (support services)

• 1st for Visa Support

• 2nd for Careers Service

• 90.5% overall satisfaction rate

Overall, based on whether students would recommend the university, Bradford ranked 4 out of 10 for the Bespoke ISB, 11 out of 35 in the UK and 23 out of 137 globally.

Yesterday, we reported on the story of Sanctuary Scholarship graduate Gloria Ludlow, originally from Zimbabwe, who recently took up a position as a nurse at St James's Hospital, Leeds.