We’re very pleased to present our Region III issue, the latest in our series of magazines exploring what the United States can offer to international students.

In previous years we have produced one annual USA magazine to cover all the states. However, this year, for ease of use we will be releasing eleven regional issues throughout the year, based on the 11 NAFSA (Association of International Educators) regions. We will then be releasing an annual of all the regions at the end of the year.

In this issue we delve into the culture and educational systems of Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas. It has been a pleasure working with professionals and students across these four states to build up a picture of the unique educational experience on offer for visitors from around the world.

We hope you enjoy the Region III issue and as always we would love to hear your feedback on the magazine. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to get in touch at editorial@i-studentadvisor.com

We’re also very excited to announce that ISA Media has now officially relaunched as i-studentgroup to reflect our growing number of services. You can visit our new website at www.i-studentgroup.com for all of the details; make sure to visit us on Facebook too at www.facebook.com/istudentadvisor

Click here to view the ISA media holiday card.

This is our last blog of the year, but we will be back on January 4th bringing you daily updates of news, features and events in international education around the world.

In addition to the blogs, ISA Media will be producing many more products and services for students and educators in the new year. There will be….

• TWICE as many i-studentadvisor interactive online publications

• Eleven regional publications for the USA in addition to the national USA guide

• Regular updates for students on the i-studentlife website

• Tailored information for individual students generated by the i-studentenquiry service

PLUS representatives from i-studentadvisor will be visiting schools in China, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, Japan, The Phillipinnes, Indonesia, India and across Europe

We will also be attending education fairs in Brazil, Egypt, Turkey, Azerbaijan and many other countries plus the NAFSA national and regional conference, the EAIE conference and OACAC….keep checking the i-studentadvisor blog to find out where we will be.

ISA Media’s Operations Manager, Emma Stephens said: “2009 has been a great year for ISA Media, making new friends and acheiving so many of our goals. We are looking forward to a new year with ISA Media, full of new projects and challenges.”

Happy Holidays!

Four represantatives from i-studentadvisor are currently in Morocco at the a2 international education fair, meeting with international students and demonstrating the i-studentadvisor publications and

For more information on a2 international education fairs view their e-brochure — www.i-studentadvisor.com/a2fairs

The Sheraton Casablanca hotel opened its door to the a2  fair  on Wednesday, November 18th after a registration and welcome event the previous evening. The fair moved on to its second leg today and traveled south to the city of Marrakesh where the final two days of the fair are being held at the Le Méridien N’Fis Hotel. A full itinerary of the Morocco fair is available to download here.

i-studentadvisor (i-studentgroup) have so far received a fantastic response from the international students at both locations where they have been demonstrating the i-studentadvisor online publications and inviting the students to participate in the brand new i-studentadvisor enquiry service. The i-studentenquiry service has been created to help international students in their initial search for the right college, university or English language school to suit their individual needs. It is simple to use — just fill out the online form and our personal matching service will search hundreds of institutions to find the right match for their individual needs, they will then be contacted directly by the institutions with relevant information. visit www.i-studentenquiry.com

i-studentadvisor will be attending a number of a2 fairs over the course of 2010 and would love to see you there. For a calendar of upcoming fairs and details on how to register visit www.aafair.com.

The Universities Fighting World Hunger (UFWH) e-brochure is now available online at www.i-studentadvisor.com/ufwh. The brochure was designed and created by ISA Media after UFWH won a free e-brochure competition at the 2009 NAFSA Annual Conference and Expo.

ISA Media — the company responsible for i-studentadvisor, i-studentlife, i-studentenquiry and a range of interactive e-brochures for higher education institutions — launched a competition at this years NAFSA conferences in Los Angeles for one institution or organisation to win a four page electronic brochure.  Competition entrants were asked to hand in business cards at the ISA Media booth to be entered into the prize draw which was drawn on the final day of the conference.

The lucky winners were Universities Fighting World Hunger (UFWH), an organisation devoted to fighting world hunger with the help of donations and support of universities. UFWH began in 2004 as a partnership between the United Nations World Food Programme and Auburn University. Since then, more than 100 colleges and universities worldwide have joined in their efforts to eliminate hunger locally and globally. View the e-brochure for more information on UFWH or visit the website.

The runner-up prize of a 21-year-old bottle of whiskey went to John McPartland, Director of International Affairs at Trinity College Dublin.

ISA Media will be holding more booth competitions at the 2010 NAFSA conference in Kansa City, Missouri. For a chance of winning stop by the booth. Keep checking the i-studentadvisor blog for updates on both the NAFSA conference and other events that ISA Media will be attending.

During this time we have covered a variety of stories and followed developing issues in international education, often sparking debate both on the blog site and in the i-studentadvisor office.

The past 99 i-studentadvisor blogs have brought you the latest statistics in international education from a variety of reports and surveys, controversial global discussions such as the Australia racism issue plus sneak previews of upcoming i-studentadvisor magazines and other ventures including the launch of the brand new website, i-studentlife.

We first looked at the impact of the recession on the international education industry back in May when we reported that many small colleges in the US had fallen victim to the recession. Since then we have had numerous related stories from aroud the world, each with a different take on the recesiion debate, including reports in July that the current economic climate is actually causing an increase in university applications in the UK.

Roz Brabner, former Editorial Assistant for i-studentadvisor and original i-studentadvisor blogger said: “It has been fantastic to view the growing success of the i-studentadvisor blog over the last 6 months, the blog provides everyone in international education excellent up to date, accessible and refreshing material and has been a great success. I am delighted I was involved in this fantastic project and I look forward to reading more dynamic content from Nikki and Felicity!”

We are just putting the finishing touches to the new issue of i-studentadvisor UK. In this issue we are featuring a special supplement chapter about Psychology courses in the UK.  Official figures show that nationally psychology moved from the 5th most popular undergraduate degree subject in 1996, to the second largest discipline overall in 2007. Postgraduate numbers in psychology have more than tripled in the last 12 years. According to The Royal Society, in 2008 psychology was the largest scientific discipline in the UK.

Here is a preview of our lead article written by Peter Bannister from the Association of Heads of Psychology Departments:

UK Psychology Degrees

Psychology is the most popular science subject in HE in the UK, second only to law in terms of single discipline studies, with around 70000 students. Students from a wide variety of backgrounds and entrance qualifications study it. Applications are welcomed from overseas students.

A degree course in Psychology (usually three years, four years in Scotland) has an emphasis on science, developing the understanding of the human mind, brain, behaviour, social contexts and experience through teaching and research. A degree will include acquiring knowledge and experience of a wide range of research skills and methods. Throughout there is an emphasis on the real life applications of the subject, which has a growing impact on popular culture.

Degrees cover very much the same area, as the British Psychological Society governs and continually reviews the core curriculum; in general a degree will initially introduce the discipline and possibly cover allied subjects such as biology and sociology, providing introductory practicals, statistics and research methods.

This will be followed by detailed core coverage of the whole discipline, from the biological basis of behaviour and neuroscience through to social psychology, covering cognition (perception, memory, learning, attention), human development, individual differences (including personality, intelligence, psychological testing), conceptual and historical aspects and further practicals, research methods and statistical work. The final year will normally involve an individual research project and studying a series of specialist options which will be different from institution to institution, reflecting the expertise and research of the staff. So these may vary from options that relate to career pathways such as forensic psychology to detailed specialist studies such as applied cognitive psychology. Throughout the course there will be an emphasis on the developing of skills for subsequent employment, including presentations, group work and critical thinking. Assessment will be by a wide variety of methods, ranging from conventional examinations to case study and portfolio presentations.

To read the rest of the article, visit us again at the end of August, keep checking www.i-studentadvisor.com or subscribe free to receive email updates whenever a new magazine goes online.

Amongst the highlights of the conference, hosted by Chapman University, were the awards dinner on the Queen Mary, the social event at Downtown Disney and the (fiercely competitive) annual dodgeball tournament!  Of course the conference was not all about socialising and there were a fantastic selection of workshops to choose from discussing important topics within international education, it was fantastic to hear the perspective of both the schools and the colleges on different issues. Another highlight was the high school and college fair on saturday, which i-studentadvisor were very proud to be the sponsor of.

This was the first OACAC conference i-studentadvisor attended and we were amazed by the care and organisation that went in to planning the conference. Special mention should go to David Allen, Doug Thompson and all the OACAC team for organising the conference and Chapman university staff and students for being fantastic hosts. We would also like to thank all the sponsors of the events, workshop presenters and all mentors and experienced ‘OACACers’ who made us feel so welcome.

We hope everyone who attended the conference enjoyed it as much as we did and we are already looking froward to next years conference being held at Northeastern University, Boston. Those who would like to attend next year should keep checking the OACAC website for updates and we would fully recommend anyone who works in the international college admissions field attend.

Were you at the conference? Please leave a comment aboout your favourite 2009 OACAC memories, or your thoughts on the conference as a whole.

“NAFSA 2008 was a huge success, it was such a good opportunity to catch up with our clients and friends from around the globe and gain invaluable insight into the current goings on in the world of international education. We are very much looking forward to more of the same this year in Los Angeles.”

— Maddie Darnton, General Manager.

If you are attending the event don’t forget to stop by and visit us at booth numbers 429 and 431 to view our full range of our interactive brochures and i-studentadvisor magazines. We even have a prize draw where you could win a four page bespoke, interactive brochure.

We hope to see you there!