Do students decide on universities on account of movies? - BBC news

by using Matt Pickles .

image copyright Thinkstock image caption Legally Blonde big name Reese Witherspoon: Are movies the manner for universities to reach a much broader viewers?

Are videos a hidden aspect in making a choice on a college? Does Hollywood and Bollywood have an impact on the place college students wish to examine?

instead of prospectuses and stalls at overseas recruitment fairs, should universities are trying to appeal to remote places students during the cinema?

instead of specializing in international tuition rankings, should still they be looking at field workplace takings?

Sir Anthony Seldon, vice chancellor of Buckingham university and former headmaster of Wellington college, says: "tv and film portrayals of schools and universities are way more important in opinion formation I suppose than commonly realised."

this is supported by a contemporary survey of chinese and South Korean students in the u.s., which counseled more than two thirds had been influenced by the movie photo of going to an American college.

the us is the realm's largest destination for overseas s tudents and it brings an estimated $20bn (£14bn) every yr to the financial system.

films such as a good looking mind set in Princeton, Legally Blonde and The Social network in Harvard, and The Graduate in Berkeley, California, have taken the united states campus experience to a global viewers, showcasing every thing from the educational amenities to wild fraternity events.

image copyright COLIN BROOKS photo caption The university of Leicester has hosted the filming of Bollywood movies, elevating the institution's profile with students in Asia

A scholar within the survey mirrored on how lecturers looked as if it would appreciate their students and students in the US had the "freedom to ask any questions to the professor" - according to the proof of looking at films.

in the UK, the university of Leicester has made itself "open to business" to Bollywood, hosting three movies considering that 2001. a part of the deal struck with the 2013 film Yamla Pagla Deewana 2 become that the lead actor would say on display that he graduated from Leicester.

school spokesman Ather Mirza says the Bollywood connection offers Leicester an potential in a crowded industry.

"each person is shouting and or not it's now not about who shouts loudest, however who has whatever thing varied to claim," he says.

"This has helped to create a narrative for the institution and actually raised attention of us in India."

Mr Mirza says that whenever a film is shot in Leicester, or proven on television, there's a flurry of mentions of the university on social media.

photograph copyright PA graphic caption How a whole lot did Hogwarts promote boarding colleges and Latin lessons?

Universities in New Zeland have benefited from The Lord of the Rings impact.

Dr Alfio Leotta, an academic at Victoria university of Wellington, says the films have encouraged the increase of movie reviews in New Zealand.

"there was a lot of crucial hobby in both Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and probably the most penalties is that students now regard New Zealand, and Wellington in selected, as a spot that can produce essential blockbusters."

movie can even be used to exchange poor perceptions of someone or place.

In 2009 there were excessive profile protests in both Australia and India after a collection of violent attacks on Indian students in Australia.

This was adopted with the aid of a extremely sharp decline in Indian students deciding on Australian universities, which became a serious difficulty in such a crucial pupil market.

photo copyright AP image caption Lord of the Rings movies brought movie students to New Zealand

So Prateek Chakravorty, a Bollywood director and alumnus of college of know-how Sydney, crafted from Sydney With Love about an Indian student at institution of new South Wales.

"I studied at UTS, and for me the journey become very respectable, so I made a film about it," said Mr Chakravorty.

The movie, which opened in 900 cinemas in India, showed two college students falling in love to the backdrop of the Sydney school constructions, Bondi beach and the opera condominium.

with the aid of 2014 the numbers of Indian students in Australia had been rising once more.

guidelines on visas and scholarships may have been generally responsible, however Aleksandr Voninski, foreign director at tuition of new South Wales, offers From Sydney With Love and another film (Un)Indian probably the most credit score.

"whereas is unattainable to precisely pinpoint and music what impact the videos have had, we trust they've positively influenced prospective st udents and parents," observed Mr Voninski.

photograph copyright Thinkstock graphic caption A extra fine film message helped improve the dented picture of Sydney for distant places college students

The global success of the Harry Potter movies has been claimed as an element in encouraging remote places students to return to British boarding colleges.

however has additionally been credited with rescuing Latin.

After Latin changed into reintroduced to Bromley high college GDST in 2002, the subject grew to become so accepted that it turned into provided to scholars taking GCSEs and A-stages.

Lorna Duggleby, the college's former head instructor, says the Potter franchise partly fuelled this demand.

"I regularly obtained comments about Harry Potter and the connection between Latin and the names of spells," she says.

more reviews from the BBC's world schooling sequence schooling from an international point of view and the way to get in touch

There are additionally hazards associated with acting in movies.

tuition administrators will also be stereotyped as unreasonable and pedantic - the desire Ferrell comedy historical schoo l is considered one of many about students fighting an unsympathetic dean.

Legally Blonde, a comedy about a younger lady overcoming other people's stereotypes to succeed in legislation faculty, is now linked to Harvard. The popularity of the film has put the university's identify in entrance of audiences around the globe.

but it surely could have been set in Stanford's legislations school - where the customary novel turned into set - or Chicago, but each became it down.

it's no longer tough to peer how universities might have hesitated about a story with campus snobbery and an educational making advances on a pupil.

television and movie have even been linked to errors made with the aid of college students.

An audit into trainee doctors in Canada a couple of years ago found many have been making the same mistake in a single selected piece of surgery.

An investigation found many claimed to had been influenced by way of medical dramas - and further inquiries confirmed that the same process had been shown 26 instances within the scientific drama ER, with none depicting the approved technique.

but the case of the tuition of Leicester shows how videos can also be used to assist recruit overseas college students.

When universities are competing challenging for the attention of remote places students, the cinema reveal can be an below-known means of raising a worldwide profile.