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

4. 
Benefits of international graduates 
4.1 Benefit types and classification 
In this chapter we present the main evidence from our primary research into the wider 
benefits of international HE in the UK, investigated through the experiences and 
perceptions of international UK alumni recorded in our 100 interviews.
At the highest level, we grouped these benefits and impacts by beneficiary: 

benefits to the UK (host country) – groups A & B 

benefits to the international graduates themselves – group C 

benefits to their countries of origin (source countries) – group D. 
Within these very broad groupings, we identified a total range of fifteen benefit types 
inductively from the interviews. These included two sub-groups within benefits to the UK, 
economic (A) and influence (B). The fifteen benefit types are depicted in Figure 3. 
Some of these benefit types map well onto types of impact identified in the existing 
literature, but others less so. Table 4 attempts to map the fifteen types to known benefits in 
the form of de Wit’s (2002) rationales for international education. As can be seen, many do 
not map uniquely and there is also much overlap between them. We chose to define and 
describe the benefits on the basis of the evidence obtained during our primary research.
De Wit rationale UK Economic 
UK Influence 
International 
graduate 
Country of 
origin 
Financial A1 
Economic 
A2, A3, A4, A5 
B1, B2, B3 
C1, C2, C3, C4 
D1 
Academic 
A1 
B3 
C2, C3, C4 
D1, D2 
Socio-cultural 
A3 
B1, B2 
C3, C4, C5 
D1, D2 
Political 
A3 
B1, B3 
C3, C5 
D1, D2 
Table 4
Benefit types identified against de Wit’s rationales for HE (de Wit, 2002) 
In the remaining sections of this chapter, each high level benefit grouping (A-D) is 
introduced, set in the context of any prior knowledge obtained from our literature search, 
and then each benefit type within it is defined, described using primary research evidence 
and illustrated with a short case study of an example from the alumni interviewed.

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Wider benefits of international graduates