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

4.4.2.2 Implications 
The ‘additional’ impact of UK experiences on family members who had accompanied 
international students to the UK is clearly very modest in scale (and tiny in comparison 
with the scale of some other benefits), but is included as it was so distinctly articulated. 
Family members and friends who do not accompany international students also travel to 
the UK, either to visit the student or after they have returned home, offering further modest 
economic benefits through tourism.
Alumni who recommend others to participate in HE study in the UK are taking part in a 
multiplying effect, albeit discussed in more detail elsewhere. However, there are clearly 
impacts where graduates’ more general personal activities bring them into contact with 
others in their home country, in education or other fields, whom they influence. These 
secondary effects may add considerably to the net overall impact, with potentially multiple 
beneficiary groups in the home country.
74 

---

The Wider Benefits of International Higher Education in the UK 
Case study: I61 
Interview I61 has severe visual impairment with no vision at all. She had attended 
university in Lebanon, obtained a teaching diploma and had been working in a school for 
the visually impaired. Winning a UK-funded scholarship, she came to London for a 
graduate diploma, then subsequently undertook a Masters and when interviewed was 
completing her PhD.
She initially had lots of support from the Chevening scheme – providing her with support 
workers, transport, and assisting generally with equal access – as well as from another 
foundation. She found the first year very challenging but coming to London completely 
changed the way she worked and lived. For the first time in her life she achieved 
independence, because the UK infrastructure takes account of people with a disability. In 
time she no longer needed a support worker; she had “
built herself
.” 
She wants to challenge the idea in Lebanon that visually impaired people should only 
aspire to study a restricted range of subjects in education. Having also worked on 
projects for the British Council and for the RNIB, her experience and HE study have 
equipped her to return to the Lebanon to advise, train and support others who work in the 
field of disability – most of whom are not qualified. Another of her aims is to influence 
policy-makers in Lebanon to improve access for people with disability.
I61 has developed a wide and varied international network, with which she is in constant 
contact – and in which her institution in London is pivotal – and she hopes to build a 
partnership between it and a university in Lebanon to spread the learning at home.
She also now presents regularly at conferences by invitation on issues such as 
orientation and mobility, equal access and inclusion, all over the world, and is inspiring 
others with disability to have a powerful and international voice. 
75 

---

The Wider Benefits of International Higher Education in the UK