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

4.3.1.2 Implications 
As exemplified here, many of the graduates reported profound impacts on their own career 
and progression, almost universally positive, due directly to their HE course or the wider 
experience of studying in the UK, or both. In some cases it was the specific content and 
qualification that enabled them to obtain enhanced career progress, or a change in career 
direction. However, in other cases it was the deeper personal benefit of overcoming the 
challenges of travelling to another country, setting up remote from home and studying. In 
some cases what they saw in the UK inspired them to see new possibilities at home. 
Although the detailed benefits vary, two consistent trends appear to be present. First, there 
was almost universal career-related benefit, which is to be welcomed since so many had 
cited career-related motivations to study in the UK in the first place. Second, there was 
great variety in the type and extent of impact, due to the individual nature of the alumni 
and their pre-existing social or cultural capital (including the opportunities open to them), 
although impacts were not always predictable as some alumni were inspired to follow 
directions they had not conceived before. Much of this impact relates to personal 
development and growth, which is also covered under benefit type C4.
In some cases career benefit resulted from perceptions, inherent in certain countries of 
origin, that graduates from overseas HE have a higher ‘status’ than local HE graduates. 
This was reported by some graduates from India, China and some developing nations, but 
may well be diminishing overall as the market for international HE expands and becomes 
global, potentially to be replaced by more discerning attitudes and greater understanding 
of the variety of international HE available. As that is the case it will be beneficial for 
alumni to be able to articulate the particular benefits of studying in the UK.
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The Wider Benefits of International Higher Education in the UK 
Evidence for improved employment outcomes after a period of overseas study tends to 
relate immediate benefits secured and/or employment in host countries rather than long-
term progression in their country of origin. Some host countries collect data on the 
employment outcomes for skilled graduates, but if they only work for a short time they may 
not be included in any datasets. Data on career progression once international students 
leave the host country as alumni are very limited, as it often difficult to track students as 
they move around during their early careers. In the case of the UK, national studies of 
employment outcomes for graduates (HESA’s Destinations of Leavers from Higher 
Education surveys) have been restricted to UK and EU graduates. The i-GO study (BIS 
2012) concluded that UK-educated graduates from non-EU countries achieved markedly 
higher salaries on return than the average in their country of origin, and that potential for 
career progression had been the dominant factor in their course selection. 
However, as we have seen, career-related benefits of overseas study are not always 
immediate or short-term or easy to realise, and as some studies focused on the 
employment experiences of Chinese students have demonstrated (Gu, 2012). In the case 
of Chinese students it can often take time for them to re-acclimatise into their native labour 
market and to recognise how best to utilise their overseas experience in their local context. 
This can especially be true for students who were already had careers in their home 
country before studying overseas. 
Equally, future projections of career enhancement may have to be tempered somewhat if 
the number of internationally educated alumni in a country becomes high. It has been 
considered that there may be an inverse relationship between the proportion of such 
graduates in the workforce and extent of enhancement they might experience. 
However, our interviews provide unequivocal evidence for the strong and positive career 
enhancement directly or indirectly enjoyed by alumni of UK HE.