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

“I got to live in one of the oldest residences for postgrads in the 
Liverpool university campus but how was I supposed to know that I would see the 
world through living there? I lived with the Turkish girl, with the Chinese girl, with an 
Indian girl, and with the girl from Holland. I still have strong relationships with them; 
they have become the friends of my life. So that also was very, very special. Because 
when I moved there that mix of culture was shocking, but at the same time you learn a 
lot about tolerance and how to make peace with your own devils, to be able to have a 
good time.” 

Commonwealth scholar I64 was one of 25 nationalities amongst 30 students on her 
MSc in development economics at Oxford. This forced the New Zealander quickly to 
meet people with many different backgrounds, cultures and thinking, and she learned 
hugely how to engage with them.

I86 from India found that the engagement with other students was highly significant for 
him during his MBA at Cardiff: 
“The most important thing is just not the education in the 
UK but mixing with a lot of people of different culture, diversity, caste, creed, and 
religion basically. I interacted with people from foreign countries…you get to know 
about the culture, you will get to know about them, and then you learn so many things 
from them? And befriended a lot of people, learning their way of life was an amazing 
experience for me” 

Argentinian I96 studied a first degree at University College London, and reported both 
short-term difficulties and long term benefit on return home, due to her personal 
intercultural development: 
“I interact with people in a different way [now]. I’m more used 
to meeting new people even if they’re not from my country. I get along much easier 
because I’m more open to things from the outside. I got more international which 
sometimes it’s a good thing or sometimes it’s bad. Here in Argentina, we are not 
multicultural. We don’t have a mix of ethnic backgrounds, it’s a very closed society and 
it’s very national. I mean they all dress the same way here, they all think the same way. 
When you’re a bit different, you really stand out. At the beginning it was [strange]. 
When I came back from the UK, after living abroad for five years, I came back and you 
know, I realised I lost my friends, the ones that I have from school. I didn’t feel I belong 
to my country so the first month was very, very difficult for me. I didn’t understand what 
I was doing here, the way people think, how they dress, I didn’t understand anything. I 
was so used to this multicultural, everyone can do whatever they want or I mean, keep 
their religion, their style, their whatever and everyone accepts everyone how they are, 
and here they don’t. So, yeah, at the beginning it was very difficult. I’ve been here for 
four years now. I love my country and now I understand how it is here, I understand 
how it is abroad and I can adapt. So, now I’m okay. I’m happy here.” 
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The Wider Benefits of International Higher Education in the UK 
However, several alumni commented on the absence or small number of British students 
in their classes, which they felt detracted from the overall nature of the UK HE experience 
and its potential social benefits (these were particularly on Masters courses). Others 
commented, some adversely, on the practice of some universities then to house 
international students together separately from UK students, as this hindered integration 
between host country and international students:

I15 enjoyed the experience of meeting many nationalities on his nutrition MSc at 
Glasgow but felt there was a downside in not meeting local students: 
“They had given 
us a place where normally there are international students, so that made it possible for 
us to interact with many people from other countries. So most of the people I interacted 
with were not Scottish, but I have good friends from Greece, the US, parts of Africa, 
China, all over. I must admit, I didn’t have Scottish friends to be honest, maybe 
because of the way the accommodation set up.”

American graduate I69 had lived in Australia before doing a taught Masters in 
economic development at Manchester: 
“Most of us actually came from overseas so, I 
don’t know whether we did this to ourselves or what, but we were quite isolated from 
the rest of the university. We had our own building, and we did a lot as a group 
because we were all new to Manchester. A lot of our courses were like this; we had our 
own computer labs, our own library, our own everything. It made it easier for me to 
meet people and less daunting, but with respect to having any sort of contact with 
people outside my course through the university, I didn’t really.” 

I20 from China had a rather similar experience, also at Manchester, during his Masters 
funded by the European Commission: 
“In my case, I was staying at one of the 
university dormitories which was three miles outside the city centre and most of the 
people living in that community were internationals. I think there were only a couple of 
British students living there, so that became a natural barrier for us to better integrate 
ourselves with the UK students.” 

I93 studied financial management at Stirling, living in a hall of residence with many 
others from her university in Shanghai that had formal partnership links with Stirling, 
resulting in her rather interesting view on ‘foreign’ students: 
“I make some new friends 
when I go to UK. But most of them are my classmates from the Jiao Tong University 
since we studied together and together go to the University of Stirling. And I lived in a 
dormitory; all my roommates are all Chinese but from other provinces. So I also made 
some new friends from Beijing and one friend from Taiwan. There’s not many 
foreigners 
[i.e. non-Chinese]
 in my class, because I think more Chinese students like to 
study finance; there’s only about four students from other countries.”