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

7.1 Recommendations 
For Government: 

Stronger and clear promotion of allowable opportunities for post-study employment and 
work experiences during HE study would help to alleviate growing perceptions that UK 
international HE provision is less attractive due to recent changes to visa structures 
and processes. 

There is a growing evidence base in relation to the impact of international student 
mobility, to which this study adds a new dimension through alumni. Future research 
tracking alumni as they progress further along their career trajectories would be 
valuable to understand whether their positivity sustains or continues to grow, and to 
illustrate realisation of many potential longer-term benefits. 

The present study was restricted to the ‘traditional’ model of incoming international 
student mobility, but the majority of international students of the UK follow education 
programmes without campus enrolment in the UK. Extending this research so as to 
understand the wider benefits of other models of international HE study, including TNE, 
would provide a more complete picture of benefits and impacts. What is the impact 
when the student does not physically visit the UK? 

Given the unequivocal benefits perceived here from international student mobility, it 
could be useful to consider the extent and range of impacts on the UK of a strategy to 
increase UK student outward mobility, potentially to provide measures of the value of 
implementation of that strategy.
For HE providers: 

The flipside of UK HE’s strong international and intercultural cosmopolitanism is that it 
can result in sub-optimal integration of international and home students. HE institutions 
should continue to review and improve their support for international students, so as to 
strike the right balance of integration.

Wider experiences off campus clearly deliver many benefits to international students; 
HE providers would do well to support and promote these further to students in order to 
maximise their overall experience and in turn foster their own positive reputations. 

The extensive use of digital social network media worldwide provides new opportunities 
for alumni to communicate and potentially collaborate. Alumni offices need to continue 
to experiment and make appropriate use of such networks, and potentially review the 
effectiveness of a variety of models of alumni contact and support.
For UK stakeholders in international HE: 

There is a growing ‘army’ of alumni as informal ambassadors for ‘brand UK’ and UK HE 
in particular, potentially increasing by hundreds of thousands annually, whose influence 
will increase in their home countries with time. HE providers and the wider HE sector 
should consider how this goodwill can best be utilised for optimal benefit, within the 
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The Wider Benefits of International Higher Education in the UK 
constraints of effective soft power. This could add to current promotional efforts, 
including recognition of existing best practice and use of positive personal alumni 
stories. 

Consideration of a ‘national’ network of support for international alumni of the UK would 
be welcome, as well as other opportunities for appropriate integrated effort, to help all