In defence of international education

Professor Elena Rodriguez-Falcon FREng PFHEA is the Provost and Chief Academic Officer of international education provider Study Group

When I first travelled to the UK from my home in Mexico as a postgraduate international student 27 years ago, my father’s words were ringing in my ears. The UK was the best place in the world for me to study and it was worth the major investment it took for my family to help me take this brave step. I felt their pride in me and desire to see me succeed as I have done every year since. I set out on a journey that would change my life.

Last week, I flew back to the UK from Mexico once more. I was returning from chairing the International Advisory Board at my alma mater, the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León. In the intervening years, I had successfully completed my various studies, became a Professor of Engineering in a Russell Group university, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the founding President and CEO of NMITE, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Wales Trinity Saint David and the Provost and Chief Academic Officer of International Education Provider Study Group. I’ve also received awards for my work on education innovation, as an advocate for women in STEM and as a proudly LGBTQ+ leader in education. I’ve travelled a long way.

And yet my first act after I arrived home was to defend to a BBC investigative journalist the journey of people just like me who had travelled halfway across the world to spend their family’s money on that most precious of investments, a global education. The criticisms are well-known — that the UK's higher education system has become over-reliant on international students. That these students enter universities with an unfair advantage. That they are low-quality, unengaged, don’t speak English and have been persuaded to take this route by unscrupulous agents motivated only by money. That in fact anyone who is involved in this work is somehow undermining the very education I’ve spent my whole professional career supporting and working to make better.

So let me set my answers not in secret behind a cloak of anonymity but openly, as a former international student who struggled with English and still speaks with a Mexican accent, but who didn’t let it stop her learning. And as a professor who believes that my own academic colleagues sometimes have important lessons to learn about how to bring the best out of a global cohort in ways which help everyone.

Slaying mythical dragons

But first, let me bust some myths.

International students don’t speak English. Wrong. International students are required as part of receiving their visa to achieve a minimum standard of English. But where I do agree with some critics is that they may still need help with improving the standard of their language skills to use technical terms common to their field of study, to engage in conversion or to write an essay.

Imagine for a moment that a British student was considering doing the reverse of my own journey and applying to study for a postgraduate degree in Mexico. Even if they had A-level Spanish, an excellent student may still need help to cope with a technical subject and to adjust to a very different educational system. They may need a patient tutor willing to draw them into discussion and give them time to respond. Those of my fellow professors who misread the reticence of a student from a culture in which it isn’t polite to question or challenge are missing a golden opportunity if they don’t encourage participation. I’ve done this myself and sometimes a whole class has been inspired by an answer from a previously silent student that wouldn’t have been forthcoming without that support.

Anyone with the money can be accepted to university. Wrong. Only a minority of students make it through the recruitment, admissions and selection process within their own countries. Then the pathway programmes that follow — each co-designed with universities — have rigorous standards for attendance and attainment. This was confirmed by the QAA review of pathway programmes which was reported just a few months ago.

Yes, international education is costly but it certainly isn’t a free pass, only the opportunity to prove yourself. Admission to a degree programme is a decision solely for a university. And the performance of these students in their degrees and beyond is the ultimate testament to the work they have done to get there. Our students become engineers and doctors, business leaders and lawyers. To dismiss their quality is a slur against all they have done to achieve their qualifications.

Agents can’t be trusted. Again, wrong. It is essential to the business model of agents that families are able to trust them to give good advice about study options overseas, and the results of students and graduates they have helped before are their most important advertising. In many parts of the world, seeking the advice of trusted agents in making university choices is taken for granted, and those agents may stay in touch right throughout the student’s university career and beyond. I’ve met many agents over the years, and it matters very much to them that their students are well-prepared and don’t drop out of their courses.

Of course, there are always some bad actors that don’t maintain high standards and nobody hates this more than the majority of trustworthy agents who welcome kite-marks like the U.K. Agent Quality Framework. Certainly, if an organisation like my own discovers any bad practice by an agent they are immediately suspended. It does nobody any favours to turn a blind eye to bad behaviour and we don’t.

International education is really a route to immigration. Once again, wrong. International students are eligible for a period of post-study work to help them mitigate the costs of study and consolidate their learning on the first rungs of a career, but only very few will like me to be asked to stay because they have the particular professional skills required by the UK.

Most international students want to go home to their country or region, but they do keep with them a deep affection for their friends, teachers, and experience of an adopted home during a formative period of their lives. Speak to international alumni around the world and they will talk about how they use what they learned in the UK, about an inspiring teacher or funny housemate, or about their favourite fish and chips or a loved local pub.

Of course, there have been rare times that those who aren’t genuinely interested in education slip through and if that happens responsible educators take immediate steps to work with the authorities to remove any loopholes to ensure it can’t happen again. But to assume even a significant minority of international students are attempting to game the system is incorrect and offensive. It’s hard to think of any other area of entrance to the country where compliance is so rigorous and meticulously checked.

Home truths

These then are the myths, but what of the truths?

Yes, British universities are over-reliant on international students but the scandal here is nothing to do with young people who make a courageous decision to undertake a global education and everything to do with the fact that the funding of the UK’s globally-respected higher education system has been falling in real terms for over a decade. International students have cross-subsidised facilities, subjects and research for years but that doesn’t make their presence a risk in itself.

Where I do agree with the critics is the way to remove the current precarious financial situation for universities is to properly fund domestic teaching. Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water and constrain the ability of one of Britain’s greatest assets its universities to attract the students who make its campuses a magnet for global talent and the diverse perspectives that are an education in themselves.

Another truth is that the careful preparation and support of international students on pathway and foundation programmes is not an unfair advantage but a chance to be supported to learn well and bridge a language and cultural gap so you can thrive. I really wish I’d had that myself and every time I meet these students I'm inspired.

Home thoughts from abroad

As I talked to the current President of my home university in Mexico, he told me that he had supported three of his own family to study in the UK. Each, he said, had returned inspired and with a new spark of global curiosity which had changed for the better how they engage with the world.

Yet we know there are those who would see these talented visitors who brought both funding and dedication to learning as unwelcome immigrants. Those who would undermine the journey and success of the majority because of the problems of a very few.

To them, I say we need to get some perspective but also to be careful what stereotypes we create. The conflating of international education with immigration across the Western world has led to damaging policies and international students are listening.

At a time when it matters to the future of the world that we not only know one another but also how to understand and solve problems together, global flows of young people coming together to learn and build relationships are uniquely precious. As I said to the journalist who interviewed me, I wish the BBC would make a programme about that.

Increasingly international students are choosing to study in their home regions, for very understandable reasons. It would be a truly sad day though if we were to discover our domestic political arguments and over-suspicion had undermined the very international education which has brought so much to so many.