On the 23th of September, I attended a webinar led by Universities UK International exploring the topic of “enabling international strategies” in order to increase the reach of international students in the UK. The webinar was hosted by Vivienne Stern, Director of Universities UK International, Joana Westphal, Policy Officer for the Middle East and North Africa at Universities UK International, Claire Modlen, Market Intelligence Consultant at IQ Services at IDP-Connect, and Jonah Duffin, Director Of External Relations at IDP Connect.
Although I believe the meeting was meant for organizations who are trying to recruit international students (ISs) post-Brexit, I signed up and attended as an MA student exploring the topic.
The hosts talked about the UK’s declining rankings as a study abroad destination, even when the UK’s government goals for the next 10 years include increasing the number ISs in the UK to 600,000 from the near 486,000 there are today. In order to reach such goal, UUKi recommended some areas where the UK could develop. This includes a national study campaign, bringing student visa costs in line with competitors, working with finance providers to make more IS loans available, make more scholarships available, and the now available post-study visa called the Graduate Route visa.
These recommendations go in line with what UUKi believes the UK could do better, which include promoting a welcoming and diverse environment for students from abroad, and since the GR visa is brand new, the UK needs to ensure its success. UUKi also mentioned that the UK needs to reduce financial barriers (where I believe my campaign comes in), and support the improvement of English language ability.
The UK must do better in these areas so that it can be in line with its biggest competitors – Canada, the US, and Australia. Canada presents competition as it appears as the most welcoming from an outside perspective, the US because of its high reputation regarding education quality, and Australia because it has a similar strategy as that of the UK’s.
When opened to questions, I mentioned my campaign regarding IS self-employment, and the panel quite kindly responded to my statement, which can be viewed on the video below:
Their response gave me hope that there is a fair chance that my campaign’s proposal could be something the UK government considers in their international policy.
In a slightly different subject, the panel also brought up an issue regarding studying abroad that I had previously considered in my PESTLE analysis blog post. That is, the issue of pollution by ISs since traveling back and forth between their home countries and the UK creates high levels of CO2 emissions among the IS population. They suggested that a possible solution could be a fund to offset emissions, which is an implementation I’m now highly interested in adapting to my campaign.