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

4.2.6 Benefit type B1: UK Ambassadors
International alumni have the potential to return to their home countries with a greater 
understanding of the UK’s culture and values, through which they promote and help to 
facilitate future educational, cultural, developmental and business links and collaborations. 
Alumni with strong positive experiences of HE study in the UK can develop into informal 
ambassadors for the UK. In doing so, they advocate positive aspects of our culture and 
values, which potentially supports UK economic, socio-cultural and political agendas.
4.2.6.1 Research 
evidence 
While the vast majority of the alumni interviewed felt positively about their UK HE 
experience, and would recommend others to undertake a similar study experience, some 
reported a much more emotional attachment to the UK. This was expressed in a variety of 
ways, ranging from alumni who simply professed themselves as ‘anglophiles’ or that they 
loved the UK, through to those who felt a much deeper commitment or ‘emotional bond’ 
with the UK which impacted strongly on their behaviour, activities and lives.
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The Wider Benefits of International Higher Education in the UK 
Amongst the former were alumni such as: 

Interviewee 73 from Mexico: 
“Well I’m kind of in love with [Britain]. I think they’re great 
people. Maybe they don’t laugh all the time but they have their own kind of warmth and 
I’m quite in love with the whole culture.[…] Yeah, I do [recommend people to study 
here]. And I mean if they can’t go and study I always recommend they at least go 
visit.”

I7 from India who had studied both undergraduate and Masters degrees in the UK (and 
who was later offered a post in the university), having worked in a number of countries: 
“
I love Britain…it was the best time of my life
”. 

Alumnus I18 from Malawi felt that the connection spread to values and impacted on his 
thinking and understanding professionally: 
“I would say I have some bias towards the 
UK. I would say that I feel a part of the UK and I also feel like biased if we discuss 
things, like international issues with global health. I would easily say that I think the UK 
is better.”
Indonesian Chevening Scholar I29 tried to articulate what was behind her connection 
somewhat more specifically: 
“I feel I’m closer to the UK. I don’t know which makes me closer, the people or the 
atmosphere or even with my own memories of living there. After we get back, we also 
have the reunion with other Chevening scholars and we are received by the British 
Ambassador in Indonesia, and I felt more of a tied connection between the two 
countries. Maybe this is also because I was funded by the UK government.”
Many of those who expressed this type of connection or ‘emotional bond’ most strongly 
had been supported through UK-funded scholarships such as the Chevening or
Commonwealth schemes. Many of them clearly saw themselves as ambassadors for the 
UK, to varying degrees, including some who felt very strong personal obligations to 
support the UK and to endorse and promote its values and culture wherever they went. 
Such personal bonds or commitments underpinned voluntary work and related activity that 
they engaged in, such as giving talks in schools or universities, mentoring applicants to UK 
HE, helping with local assessment of scholarship applications and more general 
assistance at their local British Council office or British High Commission. For some this 
could intermingle with their professional activities, when they attended receptions for 
overseas delegations or business visitors hosted at these ‘British’ locations or even when 
their professional role brought them into contact with commerce involving the UK. 

Chinese PhD graduate I100 had been funded by a university scholarship at 
Cambridge, but felt this bond extended to the UK much more generally and into his 
professional activities: 
“[You] have a friend down in China. [Cambridge UK is] my 
second hometown, always. When I have a negotiation with Bank of England, I always 
go kind of emotionally bonded. I feel like there's a bridge between China and UK at my 
job in the Central Bank. When the Bank of England or other UK people visit me in my 
office or duty, I will [treat them] like family, quite like a kind of large family, like an old 
friend. Emotionally bonded”. 
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The Wider Benefits of International Higher Education in the UK 

Chevening 
Scholarship 
holder I65, a financial lawyer from the Dominican Republic, 
related her own emotional position to what she saw as the purposes of the Chevening 
scholarship: 
“I think that the Chevening wants to select leaders and at the end, what 
the whole scholarship thing does is promote the relationship between the two 
countries. And why do I think this? Well, I went to England, I studied there. I feel a 
much more concrete link now to UK and I feel like I want to do things that will keep the 
countries together. I really want to promote activities or certain events that will 
eventually lead to a culture link between the Dominican Republic and the UK. When I 
returned to the country, one of the first things that happened was that I opened the 
newspaper and some enterprises had come from the UK and they were seeking 
investors here in the Dominican Republic, and it was with the UK Embassy. I went to 
the activity because I wanted to interact with the UK companies. I wanted to see if they 
needed any legal assistance and promote the relationship between the two countries.” 
Many of the alumni articulating this ambassadorial attitude most strongly had benefited 
from very full and wide experiences during their study in the UK, although often within a 
single-year programme. It was hard to find any cases where a graduate valued their 
institutional relationship positively while feeling estranged from the UK national culture. 
However, conversely, one or two graduates whose academic experiences had been 
disappointing had found other aspects of their UK experience to be very positive, and were 
in hindsight very happy to have gained a UK Masters and now felt “
special and different
”.