Latest news with #Sivarajah
CNBC
3 days ago
- Business
- CNBC
Trump's visa ban could be Britain's big break in the race for top Chinese talent
British universities are preparing to attract international Chinese students after President Donald Trump's administration cracked down on visas for Chinese students studying in the U.S. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement Wednesday that the U.S. will start "aggressively" revoking visas for Chinese students in the U.S., including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party, in efforts to curb immigration. It comes after the Trump administration also blocked Harvard University's ability to enroll or retain international students, accusing the elite Ivy League institution of "coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus." U.K. universities are now set to profit as they snatch up Chinese students who have been disrupted by this development and are likely to pivot from the U.S. to other study destinations, according to Sankar Sivarajah, head of Kingston Business School. Sivarajah said the U.S. policy is "disappointing" and "not forward-looking" at a time when higher education institutions should be fostering more diverse talents and perspectives. The total number of international Chinese students at higher education institutions in the U.K. in the 2023 to 2024 academic year came to 149,885, according to the latest figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency. This was down from 154,260 in the previous academic year, and 151,700 in the 2021 to 2022 academic year. However, change is underway as a Knight Frank analysis of UCAS's January 2025 Cycle Application found an 8.9% surge in Chinese international student applications, with 31,160 applicants from China by January 2025 compared to 28,620 at the same time last year. The U.K. is an attractive study destination for international Chinese students amongst competitors like the U.S., Canada, and Australia, Sivarajah said. It's appeal is rooted in shorter degree durations, affordable living costs, and global recognition. "These are quite attractive factors in general for the U.K. being a destination of choice for higher education and the current post-study work opportunities as well places the U.K. at a forefront to seize this opportunity," Sivarajah said. André Spicer, executive dean at Bayes Business School, said on CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" that there's been a "slow decline in the number of U.S. institutions which are in the top 100," and it comes down to international institutions upping their game, including in Europe. "So here in the U.K., we've sort of held our own, so if you get on a LimeBike from here ride 10 to 15 minutes, you're going to find a bunch of globally, leading institutions, leading business schools like my own, like Imperial like London Business School," Spicer said Friday. "So, we're one of the highest concentrations of fantastic business schools, but also great universities in Europe." British universities are also heavily reliant on funding from international students because undergraduate fees for domestic students are a "loss-making product," as the tuition fee is frozen and hasn't kept up with inflation, Sivarajah said. "So to fund higher education, the model in the U.K. is that universities really rely on international student funding to make sure that they're financially sustainable ... International student funding is quite crucial for the U.K. University's financial sustainability." Chinese students bring in about £5.5 billion ($7.4 billion) in fees across 158 U.K. universities, according to a recent Telegraph analysis. The British newspaper found that 21 universities rely on students from China for at least a tenth of their income, including the Royal College of Art, University College London and the University of Manchester. Michael Spence, UCL president and provost, said in a statement to CNBC that it highly values its international students. "International students bring far-reaching economic, social, and cultural benefits to the UK, and we remain dedicated to welcoming the brightest and the best to study with us now and in the future," Spence said. With many students set to begin the academic year in September, British universities will be ramping up efforts to make studying in the U.K. more attractive for Chinese students, including creating initiatives with Chinese institutions. "There might be an increase in the number of strategic level partnerships, working with Chinese institutions to build that so it's not a short term but a long-term look at how they can build that bridge," Sivarajah said. This includes pushing schemes such as 2 + 1 articulation programs where students are able to begin their studies in China for two years and complete the final year in the U.K. Other avenues to attract talent include offering financial incentives such as scholarships, Sivarajah added. Bayes Business School's Spicer pointed out that there are long-term benefits to Chinese students pivoting to the U.K. including growth of the European startup ecosystem. "There's some economic research which came out last year which showed that the larger percentage of high growth startups in the U.S. are founded by basically foreign nationals who had gone to U.S. universities, either in engineering, sometimes in business schools," Spicer said. "Now the question is that, if we can attract that talent here, use the ecosystems that we have in places like London, places like Berlin, places like Paris, to kind of boost those high growth startups, it's certainly going to benefit," he added.
The Hindu
22-05-2025
- General
- The Hindu
Sivam Selvaratnam's kaleidoscopic Malay canvas
A picture of zen. This is how most remember the late Malaysian artist Sivam Selvaratnam, a pioneering female voice in the still-growing melting pot that is post-Independence Malayan art. The 'zen' was not just limited to her personality — her canvases spoke of a quiet confidence. Deeply meditative at times, and unpredictable at others, the artist's body of work spanned genres and mediums, resulting in an oeuvre that resonated with many. Over 200 works from Sivam's six-decades-long career, curated by Sivarajah Natarajan and Cyril Periera of Sutra Foundation (dedicated to promoting and preserving traditional and contemporary performing arts), have recently been consolidated into a book. Sivam Selvaratnam: A Life in Art charts the artist and teacher's life, more than 10 years since her passing. 'When I was studying at the Malaysian Institute of Art, I was introduced to art history. We don't have a history like India, but there was a group founded by Sir Peter Harris, an Englishman [in 1952],' says Sivarajah, over a phone call from Kuala Lumpur. 'This was the first art group that was formed, and they would gather every Wednesday and paint.' The Wednesday Art Group attempted to break away from Eurocentric traditions and platformed artists with distinctive, modern styles. Sivam was one of its key members. 'When my lecturer mentioned the name, I was fascinated at how Indian-sounding it was,' says Sivarajah, recalling his first brush with the artist. Into a world of colour Born in Kajang, Malaysia, to parents of Sri Lankan Tamil origins, Sivam grew up surrounded by rubber plantations, tropical sunshine and abundant monsoons. And so, nestled deep in her canvases, be it realist or abstract, were the greens and browns that were hard to miss. But before entering the world of colours, she pursued a degree in teaching in Malaysia, and continued her studies in the Manchester College of Art and Design (now Manchester Metropolitan University) and with a Masters in Art and Design at the University of London. Sivam's early western influences were that of Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky and Swiss-German artist Paul Klee. And from the Indian Modernists, the Bengal School of Art and artist Raja Ravi Varma. In 2012, Sivarajah led a curation of all of the artist's work, marking Sivam's first solo show ever. Titled Rapt in Maya, it was displayed at the Universiti Malaya Art Gallery in Kuala Lumpur. During the course of the curation, over lemon cream biscuits, Sivarajah and Sivam would talk at length about the creative process behind each work done over years spent in travel with her husband. Some of her most noted works such as the Colour of Rain series, Self Portraits, MetamorphosisandIridescence, and Twilight Raga, are featured in this volume. Her family, whose personal accounts enrich the book, lends insights into the artist's personal life and values. Lakshmi Selvaratnam, her eldest daughter-in-law, fondly shares: 'My earliest recollection of her as an artist was at her home when we were children. They [her paintings] were colourful and abstract, unlike anything that you saw on walls at the time.' For Lakshmi, Sivam's sense of shapes and colour was a point of intrigue. 'Sometimes, some pieces become a blend of sound and colour, and very much an expression of her inner self,' she says. On the other hand, her observational sketches and drawings show her penchant for planning and execution, and perhaps held up a mirror to her love for teaching. Instinctive and curious Sivam was multi-faceted. 'We cannot frame her into one genre. She was very adventurous,' says Sivarajah. She was passionate about textile, jewellery design, and printmaking — dabbling in both linocut and woodcut printing. How she analyses colour theory in her abstracts stayed with Sivarajah. 'A regular to Chennai's annual Margazhi festival, she was influenced by Carnatic music and the ragas.' An educationist, she was always a teacher at heart, which also spoke to her perfectionist approach to art studies. 'She was instinctive, and always curious,' says Lakshmi. The artist's final piece of work titled Curioser (2014) — which reveals her unique exploration of memories through hieroglyphic symbols (and makes up the cover of this book) — is now at the National Art Gallery, along with another work titled Malapetaka (1962). Peppered with artworks and personal essays, the book charts a life well spent in the company of art. 'Sivam Selvaratnam: A Life in Art' is on shelves now. The journalist is based in Chennai.
