Internationally mobile students achieve higher degree classifications and have better job prospects, with Widening Participation students often outperforming both non-mobile peers and more advantaged counterparts, new UK research has signalled.
The findings come from University UK International’s Gone international, a new generation report, which updates 2016 data to reflect the shifting mobility landscape post-Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic.
The research examines the characteristics of students going abroad, participation rates and their academic and graduate employment outcomes, as well as graduate earnings.
Ahead of the report’s official release, Charley Robinson, head of global mobility policy at UUKi, shared key early findings at UUKi’s Global Mobility conference in London on February 24.
The research examines the mobility of full-time, UK-domiciled, undergraduate first-degree students, using the most recent available data from the 2021/22 cohort while also providing a high-level analysis of the four preceding cohorts.
It found that mobile students were more likely to be awarded a first-class or upper-second class degree across all five cohorts. Some 40.7% of short-term mobility students were awarded a first-class degree compared to 31.4% of non-mobile students.
Notably, the research found that Widening Participation students who were mobile were consistently awarded first-class degrees at higher rates than their non-mobile peers, and in some cases at higher rates than their more advantaged, non-mobile peers.
Mobile students from state-funded schools were 23.0% more likely to be awarded a first-class degree than non-mobile students who attended a privately funded school.
Malcolm Butler, chair of trustees at the Northern Consortium, which partnered with UUKi and Jisc on the report, commented: “This report provides further evidence to quantify the overall benefits that are seen in [academic and employability outcomes], but also specifically demonstrates the uplift given to less advantaged groups of students when compared to their non-mobile counterparts.”
“The evidence presented in this report will help us all – as providers and champions of internationalisation – to build on the achievements so far and focus efforts on increasing the opportunities available, improving accessibility, and optimising the benefits,” said Butler.
The evidence presented in this report will help us all – as providers and champions of internationalisation – to build on the achievements so far
Malcolm Butler, the Northern Consortium
Elsewhere, the research showed that the proportion of mobile disabled students awarded a first-class degree was 27.9% higher than non-mobile, non-disabled students.
The previous edition of the report, released around the EU referendum, focused on the economic and societal impact of mobility and sought to make a case to the UK Treasury for the value of mobility programs and of implementing an alternative mobility scheme arrangement in place of Erasmus+.
Robinson noted the timeliness of the new report as the UK finds itself at “another crossroads”.
“We know the UK is looking to reset its relationship with Europe. We know that Erasmus+ is important to the European side and will form parts of those discussions. We felt it was important to have fresh evidence based on the value of mobility activity,” Robinson told the London audience.
The report, which uses two sets of data – HESA student records and HESA graduate outcomes survey – found that mobile graduates were less likely to be unemployed than their non-mobile peers across all five years.
It also found that graduates who were mobile were more likely to be in professional-level jobs across all five years. In 2021/2022, mobile graduates were 5.1% more likely to be in a professional-level job than their non-mobile peers.
Graduates who undertook a short-term mobility during their studies were 6.3% more likely to be working in a professional-level job than those who without a mobility experience.
The data also pointed to mobile students having higher graduate earnings than non-mobile students across all five years.
Mobile disabled graduates earned 4.9% more (£29,992) than their non-mobile peers (£28,511) and 2.5% more than non-mobile, non-disabled graduates (£29,256).
Mobile Asian and Black graduates earned higher average salaries (£30,851 and £30,803 respectively) than mobile graduates from Mixed, White and Other backgrounds (£29,635, £29,558 and £29,447 respectively).
UUKi concluded that going abroad is “clearly a positive investment” for students and should remain a strategic priority for higher education providers and government.
The UK sector is awaiting imminent details of a refreshed International Education Strategy. In light of the report, UUKi recommends that student mobility be a “key component” of that strategy.
Robinson highlighted that the findings show that mobility aligns with the UK government’s economic growth ambitions, national skills agenda and also helps to break down barriers to opportunity.
UUKi is also advocating for a shift in funding timelines, proposing a transition from the current one-year funding model under Turing to a more long-term approach.
