#WeAreInternational: Transforming Lives highlights real-life stories of students studying, working and volunteering in the UK, their chosen study destination.

The initiative is designed to look beyond the £41 billion international students contribute annually to the UK.

The campaign puts special emphasis on the positive contribution on local communities across the UK, featuring students from Finland, Nigeria, Spain and China, among others.

Dhionis Llanaj from Albania worked as a nurse on the critical care unit of a Covid-19 ward within the Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust during his studies in the city.

“Working as an intensive care unit registered nurse and studying medical sciences full-time was difficult. To attend university, I needed to use my annual leave and request a night shift working pattern. I am delighted to say that I made it,” he said.

Glyndŵr University MBA student Siri Potineni travelled to Wrexham alone during the Covid pandemic – leaving her daughter and family in India. In Wales, multiple part-time jobs including as a cleaner and a milker on a dairy farm, helped to fund her accommodation and living expenses.

“Moving away from home is so hard,” she said. “You might smile on the outside, but I cried on the inside and I never want a fellow student to have to go through the difficulty I went through.”

Siri’s husband and daughter have now joined her but new government restrictions will prevent overseas taught masters students from bringing family with them to live in the UK while they study from 2024.

Tremaine Maskall, who spent seven years working for the Red Cross in his home country of Belize, is now in his second year at Nottingham Trent University.

“Individuals not only travel here for world-leading, high-quality education but also to contribute towards it”

He recently participated in a project to restore a derelict cottage into a safe community space.

“I aspire to use my engineering skills along with my humanitarian experiences to make a positive impact in underserved communities and areas affected by disasters or crises,” Maskall said.

Other students included in the campaign are from universities in Swansea, Sheffield, Leicester, London, Cambridge and Glasgow.

Assistant director of External Affairs at UUKi, Andrew Howells, noted that the campaign centres in on the international students who “study, live, work, invest and enrich UK towns and cities”.

“Individuals not only travel here for world-leading, high-quality education but also to contribute towards it,” he said.

“By bringing together different views from across the world, we can enhance knowledge, broaden understanding and transform lives.”