Perhaps that's the demerit of the "New Contemporaries" as it is now conceived Undergraduates don't get chosen anymore. All very different from the days of the "Young Contemporaries", the exhibition that began in the 1960s and was largely organised by the students themselves, with engagingly amateur, not to say chaotic, procedures. The exhibits are often sharp and sophisticated, with much use of new technology. There's lots of sponsorship, a glossy catalogue and the venues are grander than in years gone by (this exhibition opened in the Tate Gallery in Liverpool). Furthermore, some leading colleges are actively recruiting abroad, for they are eager to collect foreign students' fees for postgraduate education.In these ways a student art show like the "New Contemporaries" has taken on an international role.

Three more exhibitors, Xenia Dieroff, Monika Oechsler and Monika Pirch, are also German. Jun Hasegawa is Japanese, Nicky Hoberman comes from South Africa and Javier Marchan is from Barcelona That is, seven out of 33 exhibitors come from abroad. It's a new pattern, first set by foreign exchanges between art schools about a decade ago. Obviously this country's art schools are attractive to Europeans, especially if they are in London.

A big canvas is divided into four horizontal bands of even colour. We've seen this before - so many times - but I haven't had the same feeling before other pictures with this format. Berger's paintings are confident, questioning, slightly aggressive They depend entirely on colour. As all art teachers know, colour sense is the last thing to mature in a growing artist Well, Berger is nearly mature. She's also ahead in professional terms, for at the moment she's also showing at the Francis Graham-Dixon Gallery.Berger is German, was born in 1962 and came to Britain to study at Goldsmith's College in 1993. Can you imagine a similar celebration for, say, English Literature graduates? I do have a criticism of the selection, which is that there's next to no sculpture in the show.

James Chinneck's transparent Suitcases is an amazing idea, but it's not the real thing as sculpture. Perhaps next year's organisers will try to emphasise three-dimensional art Meanwhile its absence points us towards other media. Not video and installation, as one might expect, but painting. Pigment on canvas or board or whatever has a more prominent role in this "New Contemporaries" than for some years past. It's not that the painters are doing anything startlingly new, but they show that their medium is capable of constant renewal. At first sight, for instance, Sybille Berger's paintings look old-fashioned, as though they came from the late Sixties or early Seventies. Surely no other part of the educational system produces such vivid energy 1,500 people were at the private view the other night.