A woman in London has made a viral post on social media that includes "a warning" for all students who want to pursue a master's degree from the UK. Her post has created ripples on the internet, and netizens are engaged in a heated debate about studying abroad.

The woman, Janhavi Jain, who is a marketing professional, used the social networking site X (formerly Twitter) to warn foreign students against earning a master's degree in the UK. According to her, it is an uphill task finding employment after finishing studies. Janhavi mentioned that she herself pursued a master's program in the UK after graduating from India and was among the fortunate few who were able to find employment after graduation. But she added that 90 percent of her batch were frustrated and had to go back to India disappointed as they were unable to find placements.

She posted, "I get loads of texts about coming to the UK to do a master's. I will be honest with you — don't. 90% of my class had to return home because there are no jobs. If you don't have money to waste, don't think about it. In the news today, the UK government has doubled the requirement for residency to settle in the UK (Indefinite Leave to Remain) from five to ten years for most immigrants."

Once her post was trending, numerous users participated in the thread. Someone commented, "Who was ever finding jobs after a master's in the UK though? It's always been a destination for affluent children to party." Janhavi responded to this with, "60-70% used to find jobs in 6–12 months. It was never this bad."

Another member, concuring with Janhavi, contributed, "Pursuing a master's in the EU and settling down there seems a different story altogether today. Inflation in living expenses, limited career opportunities, and stiff competition make it harder than ever before. There used to be a time when migration to the UK seemed like going towards a promising future. Numerous of my European and British friends are struggling, and some even have gone back to India.

In a heartwarming series of developments that reflect growth, empowerment, and resilience, members of the Degel Menashe community have celebrated achievements across education, infrastructure, and skill-building.

Three remarkable women from Kibbutz Ma'oz TzurRachel Ngainu Touthang, Esther Nengpichong Touthang, and Shifra Thomsong—recently completed a 10-day intensive workshop on mushroom cultivation held at Pearsonmum in Lamka. Sponsored by the State Bank of India, the workshop offered both theoretical understanding and hands-on training in mushroom farming, housing units, packaging, and environmental concerns. Designed to promote cottage industries and entrepreneurship, the program was conducted free of cost, with travel expenses covered by Degel Menashe.

All three participants, who are also mothers and caretakers in their kibbutz, passed the final examination and received certificates, marking the start of a promising new chapter in self-sufficiency and sustainable productivity for Ma'oz Tzur.

In another boost to the community, a long-standing monsoon challenge has been addressed with the construction of a 1,920-foot paved road leading to Ma'oz Tzur. The new stone-and-gravel road promises cleaner access during the rainy season, ensuring a more comfortable and hygienic daily routine for residents.

Academic excellence, too, shines bright in the Degel Menashe family. Yehoshua Elezra, a recipient of the community’s scholarship program, has earned a place on the Dean’s List at Machon Lev College in Jerusalem, where he is pursuing Computer Programming. The eldest son of Shimon and Ruth Elezra of Kiryat Arba, Yehoshua is a former IDF serviceman, balancing national service with academic distinction.

And finally, Degel Menashe extends a joyous Mazal Tov to Rachel Nengaithem Haokip on her Bat Mitzvah, wishing her a life paved with responsibility, success, and meaningful milestones.

From paving roads to paving futures—Degel Menashe celebrates its community’s collective journey forward.

Illinois Institute of Technology (Illinois Tech), Chicago's tech university, is launching a campus in Mumbai, India. Illinois Tech is the first U.S. higher education institution to have received the University Grants Commission (UGC) approval for having an independent degree-granting campus in India. Undergraduate and master's degrees in computer science, engineering, and business will be provided by the new Illinois Tech -- Mumbai campus when it launches in fall 2026.

Illinois Tech's Mumbai campus will share the same rigorously academic, experiential, and industry-driven curriculum as the university's Chicago campuses, a statement on the impact read.

It will involve bringing the award-winning Illinois Tech Elevate program to campus, giving all students hands-on experience in real-world environments like internships, research, competition, and other experiences that have been shown to launch graduates to successful careers around the world's markets.

These courses will be taught by globally recruited teaching staff members, such as visiting faculty on Illinois Tech's US campuses and foreign-certified personnel. Indian students are career-enabled without emigrating abroad — but still get cross-campus study experience along with international classroom exposure.

Nationally top 100 ranked are the graduate and undergraduate computer science programs of Illinois Tech, says the 2025 US News and World Report rankings. The business schools of Illinois Tech are extremely high, its master's in management (#15), marketing (#24), and finance (#26) nationally ranked as some of the best by TFE Times (2025). Illinois Tech is nationally ranked #2 in upward mobility among highly competitive private colleges by Opportunity Insights (2024).

This move to India is a reaction to an observed increasing demand for quality higher education and global collaboration necessitated by India's National Education Policy 2020. Illinois Tech's move is in line with such policies, offering Indian students access within India itself to education globally recognized, the announcement went on to claim.

The university itself boasts a student population of more than 100 nations from all over the world, and its Chicago campus alone has more than a quarter of the students as foreign nationals. The Mumbai campus will now achieve the same by providing an avenue for students to utilize a precious learning experience so as to prepare to head the world economy.

"Illinois Tech's planned Mumbai campus — India's first-ever American university campus with STEM programs — is the National Education Policy 2020 vision to establish India as an education hub and place India in the knowledge society in the centenary year of freedom in 2047. This partnership is a reflection of our collective passion for opportunity, cross-cultural cooperation, and social progress through education.". We would like to witness more of such cooperation in the form of Indian campuses of American universities, said Somnath Ghosh, Consul General of India in Chicago.

Ratcheting up a pre-existing battle between President Donald Trump's government and Harvard University, the Department of Education imposed an $8 billion Harvard grant funding freeze.

"Harvard will not be eligible for new federal government grants until they demonstrate responsible management of the university," Department of Education senior official announced on a conference call with reporters Monday.

Public confidence in the university is at an all-time low -- and Harvard has done nothing to stop antisemitism and discrimination on its campus, the official said.

It has also lost the academic excellence rigor and is now a left-wing institution that stifles "viewpoint diversity," the official said.

The freeze includes medical research funding, the senior official said.

The university is under a federal probe by some of the administration's agencies, including the Department of Education and the Health and Human Services Department. They are conducting investigations into reports of range from failure to disclose foreign gifts to discrimination on the basis of race within the Harvard Law Review.

The administration has also initiated an expansive antisemitism task force review, which froze last month 2.2 billion dollars of funding for the school.

To become compliant again with federal law, Harvard would need to come to terms with the administration, the senior official said.

No word was given on the tax-exempt status of the university, which Trump threatened to revoke on May 2.

A Harvard spokesperson told ABC News at the time that there is no "legal basis" to take back the university's tax-exempt status, and that it would compromise the school's ability to carry out its mission.

It's yet another Indian moment of pride with Japteg Singh Bamrah, a bright young lad from Jammu, winning the much sought-after HonorsGradU 2025 Scholarship in the US. The scholarship offers the 'Build a Better Future' award and a $15,000 academic as well as innovative endeavor sponsoring scholarship.

Of the total grant fund, $10,000 will be allocated as funding to take Bamrah straight to US college and $5,000 for continued work on his life-changing invention—the Solar Mech Engine. The invention has been greeted as being a giant leap forward in the search for renewable energy technologies.

Bamrah's journey towards achieving this has been a journey of relentless hard work and scientific curiosity. Bamrah's device, worked out in collaboration with senior scientist Nasir Ul Rasheed at CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (IIIM), Jammu, is based on electromagnetic induction to achieve effective energy conversion. Fascinatingly, the Solar Mech Engine is a reversible heat pump as well, thus broadening its scope of use in practical applications.

The innovation was already making waves last year when it was found in the CSIR Jigyasa Hackathon 2024, where Bamrah proved his mettle in applying theoretical knowledge to reality in resolving problems.

Referring to the scholarship, the experts further added that the HonorsGradU program is highly competitive in nature, which is committed to finding and sponsoring such candidates who are academically good and are ready to work on sustainable projects. Bamrah's success indicates more world focus towards the Indian students' role in making science and sustainability.

The scholarship is not just a personal success for me but also an easy benchmark" said Bamrah.

While Bamrah begins his college years in the US, the next stage of his project would be in scaling and perfecting the Solar Mech Engine, which will take his dream of green energy a step further towards its fulfillment.

This victory is being hailed far and wide, both as an individual achievement as well as an inspiring demonstration of the zeal for innovation that dominates young Indian minds.

Austin Kissinger, a first-generation college student himself, was looking forward to sharing his graduation with other students in the same category who encouraged each other throughout the University of Kentucky. Historically, Kentucky first-generation college students select a member of the faculty with whom to walk during a distinct ceremony. The university last month canceled the ceremony, along with other convocations celebrating Black and LGBTQ+ students, out of deference to the Trump administration's attempt at restricting diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Student groups threw a party together off campus - away from school - but Kissinger said the decision left some students such as himself feeling forsaken.

"It's stealing our celebration, like you're stopping us from celebrating who we want to celebrate," Kissinger, a First Generation Student Organisation senior and university president, said. "You're stopping us from being representative of what we do here at the university."

President Donald Trump's pressure that any program treating students differently by race be scaled back has brought affinity graduation ceremonies under fresh scrutiny. The ceremonies have been a way of building community and celebrating underrepresented students' achievements and unique experiences for decades.

The vast majority of affinity ceremonies will continue as usual across the country, with colleges demanding that the events comply with new guidelines.

A few colleges are, however, backing away from support. Harvard University is one of them and is battling the Trump administration in court over requests for change involving campus activism and campus diversity. Although they sued the administration in response to some of its initiatives to impose change on campus, Harvard told students that it was no longer providing funding, personnel or space for affinity celebrations, according to the Harvard Crimson student newspaper.

Some colleges shift to comply with Trump administration directive

At the University of Kentucky, spokesman Jay Blanton said the top commencement honors will be awarded to all students. He said the university cut others to comply with the law and "how we think it's being interpreted by the administration."

"Our students' success and support is something that is a guiding principle and mission that means the world to us. Everything that we do on this campus, we do with that as our objective," Blanton said. "Meanwhile, we do think we have to follow the law and are doing so here."

Across the country, schools have been under increasing pressure to get in line behind Trump's agenda, as it has already suspended billions of dollars' worth of grants at Harvard, Columbia University and other universities because they have not done sufficiently to combat antisemitism.

The Education Department directed colleges to stay away from DEI in a "Dear Colleague" letter issued in February 2023. In it, a 2023 Supreme Court decision opposing racial preferences in college admissions also applied to such items as hiring, scholarships and graduation ceremonies. The administration claimed American schools have been discriminating against students, including white and Asian American students.

"In a humiliating flashback to a previous, more wicked era in the life of this country, many American colleges and universities actually encourage racial segregation at commencement and in residence halls and other buildings," the letter read, signed by Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights in the Education Department.

The tradition dates back to segregation times in some schools, but organizers of today's Black commencements argue they are a way of marking the accomplishment of racially mixed student bodies that for years had gone unremarked. "Lavender graduations," marking LGBTQ+ students and dating back to a time two decades or more ago when many were not welcomed by their families, are also standard on most colleges.

For students who are first-generation college attendees, it is simple to get lost or have no idea where to go in order to seek help, Kissinger explained. At Kentucky, he said that he felt most of the time like he was the one on whom rested the burden to get it all done by himself. The affinity ceremony, he explained, was a nod to strength and pride in that they made it to graduation.

With convocations cancelled, alternative means of upholding traditions are sought

Maricopa County Community Colleges in Arizona cancelled all its special interest and cultural convocations, citing in a statement "enforcement priorities" directed by the US Education Department. But the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community came forward to organize a convocation ceremony for American Indian graduates.

"While we are greatly disappointed by the cancellation of convocation ceremonies for minority students, we believe it is important that we as a community celebrate our graduates and their families," said community President Martin Harvier in a statement.

Ohio University's Black alumni weekend was organized by Aaron Thomas to take place this spring after the event was canceled by the university so that it would coincide with a state prohibition on DEI, which is a copy of the federal requirement. Thomas, whose production company is located just off the university campus in Athens, Ohio, had planned to sponsor an alumni barbecue before the mayor's office, nonprofits and restaurants pooled their resources to help host the weekend of activities.

Among the colleges that have affinity events planned in upcoming weeks is California State University, Long Beach, which continues to hold its celebration of Pacific Islander and Cambodian students, among others, in accordance with the administration's policy because they are inclusive.

"Our students are looking forward to these celebrations, which are inclusive and consistent with the Department of Education guidance," spokesman Jim Milbury said.

On its website, a posting after information about the cultural observances acknowledges the changing college culture:

"Particularly as federal immigration policies evolve, there is a concern that agents and officers of US immigration enforcement agencies will make visits to university campuses across the country," it says. "While we have no word of any planned visit to our campus, we share this information."

The highly globalized world today has seen English as the lingua franca that mediates communication, commerce, and cultural exchange all over the world. English, with an estimated 1.5 billion speakers, is the most spoken language in the world, says Ethnologue. The fact that the language already appears on the list of institutions of higher learning, commerce, and international diplomacy says a lot about its use as a vehicle of personal and professional growth.

As English seeps into increasingly wider realms of existence, the need for genuine and normal language testing ability tests has expanded manifold. The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is a power today that makes world fortunes. It is no longer a test - it is the pass to opportunity, which unlocks doors to educational and professional opportunities, and cultural integration on a global scale.

In a world of English speakers that brings people together across borders, IELTS is more than just a test of language. "It's a key driver of global mobility, education, and personal growth," says IDP Education's Regional Director - South Asia, Canada and LATAM, Piyush Kumar.

ENSURING STUDENTS WITH GLOBAL ASPIRATIONS

For overseas students who would like to study overseas, IELTS is the key to their dream. It is accepted by more than 12,000 institutions worldwide, from colleges and universities to professional bodies. IELTS tests the students' required skills of listening, reading, writing, and speaking in order to ensure that they possess the necessary skills. It is also accepted in 140 nations, and more than 3,400 institutions in the United States of America accept IELTS scores.

Millions of professionals and students sit for IELTS each year. It is not an exam to them-it's the ticket to international success. Preparation goes beyond the classroom. Students are assured of speaking, working, and making a difference in various settings too. In short, IELTS provides them with the vocabulary arsenal to succeed and navigate in new settings and build a generation of internationally effective citizens.

IELTS also facilitates career advancement. Many organizations demand the requirement of IELTS results in order to work or relocate to English speaking nations. Test structure also enhances the acquisition of everyday language usage skills that play an essential part in professional careers, such as successful communication, listening, and persuasive writing.

Also, the 'Listening' component of the IELTS features varying accents and the 'Speaking' component tests the English ability that individuals from varying regions use. IELTS is considered as a norm for assessing an applicant's preparedness to work under various cultural stresses and contribute towards international projects with success by most of the organizations.

BRIDGING CULTURAL AND SOCIAL GAPS

Apart from study and employment, IELTS also facilitates social interaction and cultural exchange. In working in the community or establishing real relationships with members of host culture, integration and belonging depend on communication skills.

SUPPORTING LIFELONG LEARNING

The advantage of the IELTS test lasts much longer than the duration of its conduct. IELTS preparation is based on critical thinking, time management, and adaptability. These are the skills essential in our contemporary globalised economy, where one has to keep upskilling and learning to adapt just to remain relevant.

With the mobility and interconnectedness of the world today, IELTS is the key to international achievement. It opens doors to international education for students, leads professional aspirants to career success, and paves the way to cultural assimilation for migrants in search of new horizons.

IELTS is neither a test nor a test-taking affair but a life-changing journey that forges tomorrow's citizens of the globe - citizens who can span bridges, make connections, and forge even brighter horizons for the world.

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