International Strategy for Higher Education Institutions
International Strategy for Higher Education Institutions
Outbound mobility Posted on by Vicky Lewis
The financial woes of the UK HE sector mean that everyone’s eyes are on 2025/26 international enrolments. Commentary on other aspects of global engagement, beyond student recruitment, is easily drowned out. But there’s some good news about outbound mobility.
There have long been concerns that traditional study abroad opportunities (the year or semester abroad) tend to be the preserve of more privileged students. Those who have past experience of travel. Those for whom financial constraints and caring responsibilities and inflexible rental contracts and the need to hold down a job and numerous other factors do not prevent participation. And, of course, individuals who are constrained in these ways are precisely the people for whom an international experience is likely to be most transformative.
When the Turing scheme was established in 2021, it placed an emphasis on social mobility and supporting international opportunities for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Funding was provided for shorter mobilities than had been possible under Erasmus+. Keen to secure funding, universities redoubled efforts to widen participation – but Turing’s minimum placement duration of four weeks was still a barrier. Quite apart from the logistical challenges relating to family, jobs and housing, you have to have quite a high level of confidence to head off into the unknown for a month.
So the recent announcement that the minimum duration for Turing-funded mobilities will reduce to two weeks is a welcome one. This is a more realistic length of time for those who can contemplate dipping a toe in the water, but for whom full immersion is a step too far. And often, that first experience offers a gateway to participation in other, more ambitious international opportunities at a future time.
Many universities are already doing great work to broaden access to outbound mobility. I’m looking forward to attending Universities UK’s Global mobility conference 2025 on 24 February. As well as launching the latest Gone International report on international mobility data and student experiences, the event includes breakout sessions where different universities share their own good practice. The institutions featured are the Universities of Kent, Leeds, Portsmouth, Manchester, Aberystwyth and Birmingham.
Some of the session descriptions highlight initiatives that place particular emphasis on widening participation, such as:
Speakers will doubtless have plenty to say about how to address barriers to participation, how to ensure the experience is as valuable as possible, and how to channel the skills and attributes that have been cultivated into tangible employment outcomes.
A well-established international experience, exclusively available to students who fall under the ‘Widening Participation Plus Flag’ category, is the University of Edinburgh’s INCiTE Summer School.
This two-week programme in Southeast Asia has been running since 2019. It provides an opportunity to learn about intercultural competence, design thinking, social innovation and entrepreneurship alongside participants from partner institutions in Australia, Netherlands, Singapore, China, Cambodia and Vietnam. The 2025 programme will be hosted by The National University of Management in Phnom Penh.
Participants will work on a project linked to one of three global challenge categories:
Meanwhile, over in Canada, virtual reality is being used to break down barriers to Indigenous study abroad, as reported in this PIE News article.
Prior to undertaking in-person mobility to Australia, 20 Indigenous students from three Canadian colleges ‘took part in an immersive project in which replicas of real places and historical artefacts were created for them to learn more about their Indigenous history’. VR was used to prepare students for the physical experience of travelling from Canada to Australia (including, for example, the feeling of turbulence). While in Australia, students experienced land ceremonies and heard stories from Indigenous elders, as well as connecting with Indigenous students, highlighting the synergies between indigenous cultures on both continents and making a profound and long-lasting impact on participants.
Outbound mobility can be of benefit to university staff too. I loved reading on LinkedIn about the experience of Zoe Marlow (Associate Director TNE at University of Southampton), who signed up for a four-month ExecEd Women’s Leadership Programme at Indian School of Business.
Although largely online, the programme includes two on-campus weekends, where Zoe found herself the only international student in a batch of 30 when she arrived in Chandigarh. Studying on an Indian campus, alongside Indian students, was clearly a transformative experience which, I’m sure, will give Zoe a completely different perspective that can be applied to positive effect in her professional life.
What other interesting examples do you have of short-term outbound mobility and its impact?
OUTWARD MOBILITY WIDENING ACCESS TURING SCHEME UUK INTERNATIONAL
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