‘Scotland’s univ
ersities welcome the world’ – a fresh global campaign which was launched by Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Universities Scotland – is geared towards sending a warm welcoming message to students from around the world to join Scotland’s 19 HE institutions.
The campaign which was officially launched by the Scottish First Minister on Burn’s night – 24th January – was also attended by more than 300 students, dignitaries and university staff from 65 different countries.
In her speech, Nicola Sturgeon said that “Scotland is very proud of our tradition for excellence in education, and also of our deep-seated sense of internationalism.” She went on to highlight that, “We’re also incredibly proud that more than a fifth of our students come from outside the UK.”
The campaign praises the Scottish HE sector for their internationalisation efforts thus far, which have resulted in Scotland’s 19 universities already being home to over 50,000 international students from 180 different nationalities around the world.
The powerful statement made by the Scottish First Minister and campaign launch, as highlighted by Times Higher Education, may well be seen as an attempt to adopt a more welcoming policy on international students than the one used by the UK government.