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

 
4.3.5 Benefit type C5: Social benefits and networks 
Almost every graduate interviewed articulated social benefit through the development of 
new friendships while they had been in the UK, with fellow students in the UK or elsewhere 
and other contacts they had made. Many of those relationships had sustained, providing 
alumni with a wide network of social, and potentially some professional, contacts. Some of 
these social relationships will last a lifetime, including marriages/partnerships. In a few 
cases this led them to remain in the UK permanently, while for others it determined when 
they returned to their home country or led them elsewhere.
4.3.5.1 Research 
evidence 
Alumni reflected almost uniformly that a positive aspect of their experience of UK HE was 
the friends they had made, in most cases including some based in the UK. However, the 
nature and extent of the social benefit and their ongoing social activities varied widely. 
As we have noted, many alumni commented positively on the highly international 
composition of their student body (
“25 nationalities amongst 30 on my course”
) or in their 
student accommodation which in many cases was specifically for international students. 
For some, campus life with students of numerous other nationalities and cultures had been 
a highlight of their experience (described in benefit type C3) and they maintained 
friendships worldwide as a result:
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The Wider Benefits of International Higher Education in the UK 

I68 from Nigeria kept in touch both with other Nigerians he’d met in the UK and also 
British friends, mostly through Facebook, as well as through the Birmingham 
international alumni association. 

For Indian graduate I87 it was fellow students largely from Asia with whom he 
maintained contact: 
“From, the Middle East, from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and SE Asia, 
with Malaysia, China, and all these places. I have many friends and, yeah, I do kind of 
keep in touch with quite a few, just…truly as friends
” 

South African business studies BA I21 described her contacts: 
“So my social life, it was 
around international students in my immediate circle of friends because I found that we 
could relate to each other a lot, while we all worked at that part-time job as opposed to 
just waiting and receiving funding. So I didn’t participate as much as I would have liked 
to in the uni societies for example, because I had a job really, and if I wasn’t at work, I 
was very studious because you realise you’re paying so much. I found that the friends 
that I hung out with, we’re still friends now, via social networks like Facebook, [were] 
students from China, fellow students from Africa, and all the Europeans I lived with” 

I99 maintained strong contact with her former fellow students, both socially and where 
they had common professional interest:
 “Yes I have so many friends over there [UK} 
and all over the world at the moment, lots of my international friends in their own 
countries; some of them now are very well known lawyers in their countries”.

I19 now travelled widely in her work and made use of friends she had made in London:
 
“I’ve met friends from everywhere while I was in London, actually a lot of countries I 
travel to, I have people there who I know and who are good friends. I find it much 
better and easy if you have friends in the country you travel to.”
 
Many alumni had integrated well with the wider student body, including UK students. This 
could result from a course in which there was a higher proportion of UK students, or by 
deliberate participation in generic campus-based social activities, or due to their chosen 
living arrangements. Where students had involved themselves in off-campus activities, 
they made friendships in the wider community. For example, two Sri Lankans had played 
cricket for local cricket clubs, which had provided an enjoyable immersion within and 
broader understanding of UK culture. Students who had enjoyed wider activities tended, 
notably including those few with accompanying children who were in school, had the 
greatest depth of experience of UK life – and reported it very positively. These alumni also 
tended to have developed some of the strongest friendships with UK nationals.

Indian PhD graduate I1 and his wife now kept touch most regularly with friends made 
through parents at his daughter’s school at Southampton and also through his wife’s 
job as a doctor when she had worked there, although he also kept professional contact 
with colleagues in the university itself.

Thai graduate I70 was in regular touch with people in her PhD research network but 
the strongest friendship was with her neighbour when she lived out in Colchester –
whom she still visited annually with her daughter. 

Argentinian I96 only maintained contact with a handful of her friends from University 
College London but expected a lifelong friendship with her English flatmate: