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

Case study: I23 
On return home, he found the Masters did help him get a more senior job but the 
advantage progressively wore off. It was the experience of study abroad, particularly in 
the UK, that he believed will sustain him with his career, as he is known to have been 
“
brave enough to put two feet out of the country
”. For him the wide intercultural 
experience was also highly valuable. 
His company’s work is largely in Chile and other Latin American countries, but no direct 
professional connections with the UK. However, good English is really helpful to him and 
he speaks and thinks in English; not too many people in Chile speak it well. His employer 
uses his English proficiency, so when his boss went to the US last year he helped with 
the presentation and the papers. For leisure he reads books in English and will 
encourage his children to do the same. 
They would definitely recommend the UK for university study and would like their 
children to attend. As a family they have retained many friendships with people in the UK 
and plan a holiday here in 2013. As well as UK friends, they have a network of friends 
made in UK now all over the world. 
4.3.3 Benefit type C3: Cosmopolitanism and intercultural sensitivity 
Through their experience of study on UK HE programmes with fellow students from many 
different countries, many alumni reported increased sensitivity towards other cultural 
perspectives and improved ability to understand and communicate with people from a wide 
range of different national and social backgrounds. These attributes help alumni to work 
and operate in other cultural contexts, and are sometimes described as the characteristics 
of global citizenship. This benefit can also be described as developing a more 
cosmopolitan outlook. 
4.3.3.1 Research 
evidence 
Striking comments were made by some alumni during interview in relation to the highly 
cosmopolitan composition of the student body on their HE course, especially at Masters 
level. In general this was seen to have been a highly beneficial aspect – perceived as 
unique – of their UK HE experience. Most alumni had encountered a wide variety of 
nationalities and cultures in their classmates, and most believed they learned and 
developed greatly from those interactions. Some articulated a particular benefit in being 
part of an international and multicultural group, which collectively had to overcome the 
challenges of living, coping and studying in a ‘strange’ country and environment. 

Mexican interviewee I28 commented on the effect of the international make-up of her 
communications MSc course at Coventry: 
“We were like 40 countries and many were 
Chevening scholars. The others were from a specific programme from China and 
others from India. Because so many people from so many different countries were put 
in the exact same situation as I was, the friendships and the relationships were 
stronger. You are left alone with 40 other people and you don’t have any friends, so 
you became friends very, very soon and lasting ones. My best friends are from the 
Masters”. 
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The Wider Benefits of International Higher Education in the UK 

Hawaiian I58, who had previously studied in Japan, deliberately chose the UK for his 
Masters course on globalisation, feeling that the UK itself had a unique historical legacy 
of globalisation. He was particularly interested in both the international nature of the 
student body on the course but also the evidence all around him for multiculturalism, 
and its shortcomings, in British society. 

I60, a Colombian graduate studying law, commented on the strong friends she made at 
Liverpool and how the cosmopolitan student body impacted on her as she overcame 
her own prejudices: