International Strategy for Higher Education Institutions
International Strategy for Higher Education Institutions
UK jobs in international HE Posted on by Vicky Lewis
Last month (3 March 2026 to be precise), I did a spot check of Professional / Managerial / Support Service jobs posted on the jobs.ac.uk website in the category 'International Activities'.
What struck me was how much more variety there is now than a few years ago.
There are some fascinating roles with a strong international dimension that sit outside International Offices, suggesting more effective institution-wide internationalisation.
And the recurring priorities across this little snapshot of job postings provide a useful window on what is currently preoccupying UK higher education institutions.
This blog offers a thematic commentary on what the job ads (and job descriptions) are telling us.
The University of Aberdeen was advertising the role of Vice-Principal (Global Engagement & Partnerships), reporting to the Principal and Vice-Chancellor. The postholder (salary £130K-£150K) is expected to ‘lead the development and implementation of the University’s Global Strategy, strengthening and governing strategic international partnerships, expanding Transnational Education (TNE), and enhancing global student recruitment, reputation and income generation’. The successful candidate will bring a ‘proven track record in developing and sustaining international partnerships and TNE activity, and a strong understanding of global higher education markets and policy contexts’.
The emphasis on TNE is hardly surprising, given its prominence in the UK’s International Education Strategy, and the sector’s ongoing challenges when it comes to student recruitment to the UK. Aberdeen is also one of the nine UK universities on track to set up a campus in India.
My hunch is that we’ll see more Executive leadership roles with titles that explicitly mention Partnerships. Leaders with hands-on TNE experience, coupled with strategic understanding of the global context for higher education partnership-building, will be sought after.
Two Russell Group universities are doing exciting things when it comes to enhancing the employability and career outcomes of their international graduates.
The University of Southampton’s Careers, Employability and Student Enterprise service was advertising for a Head of Career Advantage (salary £46K-£58K). Career Advantage is their new international employability programme. The role provides an opportunity to ‘shape a distinctive, high-impact offer that enhances outcomes and opportunities for international students in the UK and in-country’. It aligns with the University Strategy, the International Strategic Plan and the Employability Action Plan. Southampton is not doing things by halves: the postholder will lead ‘an international team (UK, India and China-based) of nine staff, set clear service standards and targets… and build a robust evidence base to demonstrate impact, particularly in relation to international graduate outcomes’.
Meanwhile, the University of Birmingham’s Development and Alumni Relations Office was advertising for an International Engagement Manager (salary £36K-£46K) to help ‘refine and expand a bold and innovative alumni volunteering programme’. The postholder will ‘deliver volunteer and engagement opportunities [for international alumni] in key markets including China, India, Hong Kong, USA, Dubai… and will join nine other volunteering professionals as part of the wider team’. The opportunities developed will ‘support Birmingham 2030 targets around graduate employability, student recruitment, student experience, research and influence’.
Both roles represent a welcome strategic investment in the outcomes and experience of international graduates. They help to set these institutions apart from the many whose employability support is largely designed for home students.
As prospective international students increasingly seek evidence that their overseas study will offer a good return on investment, collaboration between international recruitment teams, careers services and alumni relations teams must be strengthened. This can open the door to innovative initiatives like those at Southampton and Birmingham.
The international recruitment roles advertised (at Leeds Beckett and Greenwich) highlighted skills and aptitudes including:
The ability to manage (or work across) distributed teams is a standard expectation now that overseas offices are routinely used to extend global reach. What also struck me though was the lack of emphasis on market diversification. I’m sure it would have featured up front in such job descriptions a couple of years ago. Now that UK policy decisions and visa refusal levels are effectively reducing the viability of some source countries, market diversification appears to have been replaced by a focus on recruitment channel diversification.
Kingston University was advertising for an International Partnerships Manager (salary £50K-£59K) in its Recruitment and Admissions Team (within the Directorate for Students). The postholder will lead coordination and delivery of international partnership and TNE activity, ‘aligned to the International Plan 2025-2028 and Strategic TNE Framework’.
Specifically, they will:
The successful candidate is expected to have knowledge of financial modelling alongside relevant TNE / partnership experience.
Over at Lancaster University, the role of Global Mobility Officer (salary ‘competitive’) was being advertised. This role sits within the People and Organisational Effectiveness function and is all about supporting the University’s substantial TNE agenda. Lancaster already has campuses and teaching partnerships in China, Germany, Ghana, Malaysia and will break new ground with a joint UK-Australia campus in Indonesia. The Global Mobility function supports ‘the movement of academic and professional staff across borders helping ensure our global ambitions are realised efficiently, compliantly and with a strong focus on people’. The Officer role requires experience in Global Mobility and/or Finance/Payroll, with experience in an HR environment desirable.
Both these roles reflect not just the enhanced, strategic role of TNE and partnerships within UK universities’ international portfolios, but also a recognition that specific skills and experience around TNE finance and HR are necessary to ensure operations are financially sustainable and professionally run.
The final two jobs focused directly on compliance. The first was a Senior Applicant Compliance Manager (salary £36K-£40K) at Oxford Brookes University, based within the Admissions Office. The postholder will be responsible for providing ‘a high-quality customer-focused and efficient service in the issuing of CAS to international applicants and agents’, managing compliance with Student Route UKVI regulations. They will manage a team of Applicant Compliance Officers and Advisors.
The second job was that of a Pre-Enrolment UKVI Officer (salary £26K-£32K) at Regent College London. The role (described in the JD as Credibility Interview Officer) has responsibility for ‘conducting thorough and detailed interviews to assess the credibility of applicants’ and for ‘evaluating the authenticity and accuracy of information provided’.
An enhanced emphasis on compliance is hardly surprising in the current context and I imagine demand for expertise in this area will only grow as universities do their utmost to meet more stringent BCA thresholds.
I’ll make two concluding reflections, with the caveat that they’re based on gut feel rather than any systematic comparison with the job ads of previous years.
First, we seem to be seeing a widening gulf between high tariff and other institutions. Among more prestigious institutions, even those where there are Voluntary Severance programmes going on, strategic investments are being made in areas such as graduate employability that will make them more attractive to international students. In other parts of the sector, I’ve seen international alumni engagement and international employability roles being cut as part of cost-saving measures.
Second, I was encouraged to see explicit references in job descriptions to how certain roles (and not only the most senior ones) support key institutional strategies. In some institutions, it seems that strategy is actively shaping staffing needs (not always a given!) and that there is improved integration of international expertise across functions such as Finance, HR and Student Experience.
What else have you noticed about recent international HE job ads?
And, for anyone reading this outside the UK, what are the current priorities in your country?
INTERNATIONAL HE JOBS LEADERSHIP INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS COMPLIANCE
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