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

4.4.2 Benefit type D2: Personal multiplier effects 
In addition to the impact brought about by the activities of the alumni personally, building 
on the skills and personal development obtained through their international HE experience, 
additional benefits to others in their home country could be inferred through a variety of 
multiplier effects.
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The Wider Benefits of International Higher Education in the UK 
4.4.2.1 Research 
evidence 
A very distinctive benefit, although limited in its extent overall, was reported in interviews 
with alumni who had brought their families with them when they studied in the UK. In 
perhaps 1 in 10 of our interview cases, the student had been accompanied to the UK by 
their spouse and, in some of those, by their. In most cases in fact this turned out to be one 
child, who had been of school age. A period in the UK clearly had impact on the spouse 
and child involved. 
In these cases the alumni, as parents, thought that the impact on the child had been very 
significant. This also seemed to reflect the thought that young children are very adaptable 
in new environments and able to learn sufficiency in a new language very quickly: 

Indian interviewee I1’s daughter had three years in school during his PhD at 
Southampton, learned to speak fluent English and absorbed UK children’s and 
educational culture. Now in Bangladesh, this seemed greatly to have enhanced her 
progress in her education. I1 reported that if she retained the current interest she 
eventually she too would HE in the UK. His wife was also still in touch with friends she 
had made in the UK. 

Graduate I42 was of a similar age and brought his wife and children to Belfast during 
his PhD. Once they settled in, his son in particular thrived at a local school and, other 
than having to catch up on the Mexican history curriculum, was more than up to speed 
when they returned home: 
“So he has to work double when he came back on that 
subject. But with the other subjects, the sciences and mathematics, that was fine. I 
think my son take better advantage of being over there, for the English. I think he can 
speak much better than me”. 

I62 came to Loughborough with his wife and 6 year old son for a development Masters 
and then worked for two years prior to return to Brazil. He considered that his son had 
been the most transformed by their experience (although he had had the advantage of 
being bilingual beforehand). The son seemed to have gained many values in tune with 
the UK: 
“I think that he was one in our family that benefited the most. I mean, the way 
that […] British values into him because he was a tender age, six years old. Let’s say 
personality traits that he got from the experience in the UK; it is great and it’s curious to 
see him with his friends – sometimes they call him ‘the little lord’, because of the way 
that he thinks”.
Although overlapping with the professional capacity building impact described as benefit 
type D1, other personal multiplying effects could be perceived where the alumni returned 
to an existing or new career in education or another field in which they had very personal 
influence on others. The deep changes in their thinking and attitudes could impact on 
others through their personal, social or volunteering activities. Many but not all these cases 
had been UK-funded scholars, who at times appeared to be almost evangelical in wishing 
to spread their learning: 

Interviewee I15 was developing plans to set up a student exchange scheme in his 
native Kenya so that far more could benefit from an experience similar to his in 
Scotland, in addition to his professional mission to reform Kenyan resources policy. 
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The Wider Benefits of International Higher Education in the UK 

IT strategic manager I28 expected to leave her current job in the UK and return to 
Mexico in order to teach in a university “
in the English style
” she had seen on her 
Masters in Coventry, encouraging students to think and challenge ideas rather than 
passively absorb knowledge, as well as to help reduce the gender bias in the ICT 
sector back home. 

I80 did voluntary teaching in a local university in Nigeria in order to spread the personal 
benefit he felt he had gained from his development MA at Reading, as well as working 
professionally on rural development schemes funded through the corporate social 
responsibility activities of his multinational employer.

I99 had been inspired by the volunteering she saw in the UK: “
I saw lots of charity 
works in UK. In my home country, we don’t have these charity groups enough”. 
She 
now volunteered in a rehabilitation centre herself and was helping Rotary to raise its 
profile to gather funds for other projects. 
Several graduates from developing nations reported that in the UK they had seen that 
there was ‘a better way’ for society, and now wished to promote this message in their 
home country. This generally related to greater tolerance and compassion for others, as 
opposed to always thinking only for yourself, and greater ‘civility’ perhaps, than they saw 
prevailed in their own country. As such they were active ambassadors promoting the UK’s 
values as much as the UK itself.
The very common action of alumni recommending others to study HE in the UK, and/or 
their own alma mater, has already been covered, in relation to its impact on further UK 
education exports. However, it potentially has a multiplying impact in increasing the 
number of students who both gain individual benefits and also the ‘knock-on’ impacts to 
their country of origin through these personal multiplying effects.