Bis research paper number 128 The wider benefits of international higher education in the uk

6.7 Ambassadors including scholarship alumni 
The very positive personal stories we heard from many Chevening, Commonwealth and 
other UK-funded scholarship scheme alumni have been prominent in this research. Based 
on their reflections and reported current activities, there seems to be strong evidence that 
the aims of these schemes are being fulfilled by at least some of their alumni. Chevening 
scholarships, accessed by the ‘elite’ in target countries, are designed to build relationships 
between the UK and these countries and to foster wider socio-cultural, diplomatic, political, 
and developmental ties and impacts. For this reason they are funded by the Foreign & 
Commonwealth Office. Many of the Chevening alumni interviewed were very actively 
working as just such ambassadors. The Commonwealth Scholarship Commission 
supports international study in order to foster impacts in developing Commonwealth 
countries in terms of, inter alia, health, educational capacity-building and infrastructure 
development. Several of the Commonwealth Scholarship alumni we interviewed were 
actively pursuing careers with great personal commitment in just these areas. 
What was also clear was that these alumni’s relationships with the UK and their HEIs, and 
with fellow alumni, were strongly reinforced by the sense of belonging to that scholarship 
scheme’s alumni group. This was the alumni grouping that they cited foremost, rather than 
that of their particular institution. 
It was initially tempting to conclude that the ‘emotional bond’ with the UK articulated by 
many alumni was something unique to those with UK-funded scholarships, perhaps 
directly related to a perceived obligation to ‘pay back’ to the UK. However, the intensity of 
the personal motivations they articulated and reports of tangible activities undertaken felt 
much more than ‘pay back’. More importantly, similar emotional connections with the UK, 
and personal commitments to societal development or capacity building agendas, were 
also held by some alumni who had not had UK scholarships, although they were most 
powerfully demonstrated and more pervasive amongst the UK-funded scholarship holders. 
Emotional ties of some kind with the UK were in fact commonplace, to varying extents and 
articulated in different ways depending on the individual circumstances of many other 
alumni. 
The combination of factors underlying positive experiences of HE study in the UK led to a 
feeling of trust in the UK, its institutions and products – UK HE is clearly one the UK’s 
strongest cultural assets. This trust, in conjunction with the influencing power of soft 
diplomacy, creates support for the UK and its products, culture and language. It results in 
brand loyalty for UK goods, travel to the UK and Europe as preferred tourist and holiday 
destinations, the promulgation of UK pedagogic style on return home, recommendations to 
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The Wider Benefits of International Higher Education in the UK 
family, friends and employees over whom alumni have influence to study or train in the 
UK, and in the choice of UK partners when national businesses and networks expand into 
international partnerships.