Last Wednesday the 15th of June, Global BU representatives attended the Universities UK conference, Enhancing the International Student Experience (#EISE16) held in London at Woburn House. As the day unfolded, a range of key take-home messages were raised for many in the HE sector, as speakers presented their experiences and views on improving international student experience by highlighting various barriers and proposals for overcoming them.
The event opened with UKCISA’s Chief Executive, Dominic Scott, welcoming colleagues with an overview of the UK’s ‘good story’ within the global HE landscape. However, he highlighted the need to ‘push for something better and more innovative,’ suggesting that we have to be ‘more magnetic than our competition.’
This message remained intact throughout the day, as it became clear that the UK’s competitors are moving forward quite quickly while the UK itself has ‘plateaued’. Scott called for UK HE to ”get smarter and more sophisticated” in supporting international student experience.
Professor Allison (Vice-Chancellor and President) and Siddharth Kohli (Vice-Chair Media and Communication) from Loughborough University continued in the same vein. Their emphasis on how the current political climate, in terms of visa restrictions, programme deliverance, and seeing students as ambassadors, was supported by Siddharth Kohli’s personal story as an international student. Kohli, an Indian master’s student at Loughborough, provided an insight and understanding of what sacrifices international students make, their motivations, and their choices. He explained that league tables are often confusing, and that his choices and motivations were dependent on networking and Loughborough’s outreach strategy. He stressed the importance of supporting international student career journey’s, and the negative impact of the UK’s current restrictive visa rules.
The same sentiment was presented by the NUS’s International Students Officer, Mostafa Rajaai, who gave a passionate presentation on the UK education system through an international student’s eyes. He too stressed how critical it is for international students to not be seen as a homogenous group, but to help expand integration through creating engaging opportunities and activities that do not focus on an individual’s country of origin. He highlighted the ongoing difficulties for students in finding accommodation, and urged more HEIs to support and tackle this issue by acting as a UK-based guarantor. , Rajaai went on to discuss the issue of international student’s first days in the UK, in which they have to go through aggressive customs controls and visits to police stations for registering. He drew attention to the ‘power of a friendly face for an international student’ first arriving to the UK, demonstrating how a simple act of kindness – and simple measures from universities – could tremendously transform an international student’s experience.
The rest of the conference had speakers from different parts of the world, all pointing to the UK’s current position being one based on reputation, whilst acknowledging that the UK’s competitors were moving quickly to close the gap and eventually surpass it as preferred destinations for international students. Executive Director Chris Whelan from University New Zealand, for example, accentuated this point by claiming ‘right now, the only thing making the UK stronger than New Zealand is reputation.’ He added that whilst the UK has a ‘strong brand’ New Zealand is now receiving ‘big support from its government’ which includes support for international students’ internships. Alexandra Rosenbach from Maastricht University spoke about the Netherland’s push for national branding and promotion in the global HE market. Their most important message is that you can study in English, but also that all international students are offered free Dutch lessons (of which 75% take up). Her take home message was that ‘the magic doesn’t happen by itself’ but is something you have to help with and promote. She added that integration is ‘a mindset that does not happen overnight.’.
Overall, the international student experience is based largely on creating a community in which they feel supported and empowered by the activities, environment and overall mind-set created and encouraged by universities. All students are different and their experience needs to be personalised to the best of our ability. It is important to get the right message, and to be clear and focused to what we stand for, but also to deliver these promises.
It seemed there was a general consensus amongst conference participants that international students are our best ambassadors in the global HE market, and what they end up doing later in their lives is a large part of how we change the world as institutions.