Leading Article: French lesson

Bill Rammell, the higher education minister, is exhorting universities to do more to ensure that their students spend part of their time in a foreign country. The minister knows all about the benefits of studying abroad because he took a degree in French and spent part of his course in France.

He is right to make this a priority in today's globalised economy. But universities are finding it incredibly difficult to persuade students to go abroad. The University of Leicester has decided to introduce prospective students to the idea in the hope that this will boost numbers. We hope it works.