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

3.1 Research objectives and design 
It was agreed that the research team would conduct desk research into the existing UK 
and international academic, policy-based and ‘grey’ literature in order to gain any available 
understanding of the potential range of benefits that may accrue to the UK as a host nation 
providing higher education to international students. This would underpin primary research 
within the project. 
The literature review work would seek and focus on: 

reports of the ‘wider’ value that international students and graduates bring to the UK or 
other host countries, beyond the direct ‘education export’ financial benefit generated 
during their study in the UK; 

potential and known ‘soft power’ benefits accruing to the UK as a result of international 
graduates once they leave the UK as HE alumni, including improved perceptions of the 
UK and enhanced propensity to interact with the UK, or to other host nations; 
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The Wider Benefits of International Higher Education in the UK 

potential and known increases in the extent to which international graduates who 
studied in the UK increase the propensity of others in their country to study in the UK, 
and other possible multiplier effects;

the extent to which international HE study leads to enhanced bilateral linkages between 
people and organisations (in the host and students’ home countries), including 
increases in trade, educational linkages, or research and enterprise links; 

how this understanding might be translated into measures to identify potential benefits 
for use in the primary research within this project. 
Primary research would then be conducted in order to obtain evidence from international 
UK alumni on their experiences and perceptions of the benefits and impact of their study in 
the UK, their perceptions of benefits to the UK and their home country, and also evidence 
with which to infer wider benefits. Given limitations of time and budget, this would be the 
only aspect of field research.
The project would essentially research the issue through the lens of international UK 
alumni experiences, which would be quite a different approach from most of what was 
known of the relevant literature. The specific research approach was discussed and 
agreed with BIS, partly pragmatically on the basis of available access to certain samples of 
international alumni.
The primary research would therefore seek to provide: 

reflections on international alumni’s personal study experiences in the UK, in the 
context of their motivations and career trajectories; 

alumni’s perceptions of the benefits and impact that have ensued and may develop 
further in their own careers and wider lives, if possible identifying particular experiences 
that have led to demonstrable impacts; 

alumni’s involvement in commerce, networks and linkages of different kinds with 
individuals and organisations in the UK, including academic/educational, 
business/trade, political and social/cultural interactions; 

how such linkages were developed during their UK HE experience, and how they might 
be sustained or enhanced;

their perceptions of any tangible or potential value of these interactions and linkages, to 
themselves and also to the UK, and the extent to which this is dependent on their UK 
HE experience; 

their understanding and perceptions of other wider benefits to the UK, and to their 
home country; 

how these issues might vary with individual differences, including graduates’ 
nationality, circumstances and country of current residence, as well as their study 
characteristics such as level of study, subject, institution type or funding type. 
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The Wider Benefits of International Higher Education in the UK