What should we do next?

Yesterday the entire UK Higher Education sector received some good news after months of turmoil and negative press. Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) released its report on the rapid review of the Graduate Immigration Route (GIR, Post study work opportunity for students). The Committee reported that GIR should be retained largely unchanged in its current form as there was no credible evidence of systemic abuse. The committee did recommend more transparency by universities and greater accountability from study abroad agents from across the world.

This news not only brought relief to many UK institutions that have heavily relied on international students to remain financially viable, but domestic fees in the UK have remained unchanged for the last 7 years. Just for comparison international students end up paying a minimum of 2 or 3 times what domestic students have to pay for the same course in some cases, this can go up to even 4 times for courses in the top-ranked universities or the Russel Group universities. Many UK universities are facing grave financial stress and a dip in international students would have driven them towards an existential crisis.

As someone who has been involved in this sector for the last 10 years and was part of the initial group of people talking about GIR in India. This is an opportune moment for all stakeholders to introspect and take corrective measures. If we fail to show positive intent at this point of time we might end with far harsher recommendations in the future.

In my opinion, four critical stakeholders need modification in their approach. Firstly, UK Universities themselves, there are thousands of stories floating around in the market on how students are struggling to gain meaningful employment during the 2 years of GIR. The whole premise was that the students get an opportunity to enhance their skills so that when they return to their home countries, they are better off, than what they would have been as fresh graduates. It comes down to the basics of customer support you have a premium customer paying 4 times the price and what they are getting is inferior careers/employment support as compared to private Indian universities. UK Universities need to completely revamp their careers department making them far more proactive and focused on delivering a positive Return on Investment (ROI) to international students. Employability data mapped to country of origin should be a norm, for ages, stats have only included domestic students.

Secondly, in-country officers whether employed by third-party platforms or directly need to get better at counseling students. Students need to be given a real picture of what it takes to secure meaningful employment in the city they are going to study in and the UK overall. Pressure to keep clients happy or meet recruitment targets leads to false promises. Focus on academic performance is critical and therefore the ability to spare time for part-time work during the degree also becomes limited, especially in 1 year Master courses. If we prepare the prospective students in advance the chances of them having a negative experience are far lesser.

Thirdly, one of the most important players in this value chain is the study abroad agencies. In the last few years, there has been a change in how these organisations have operated. Infusion of technology has actually made it difficult to differentiate between a sub-agent application and a direct application. The MAC recommendations talk about registration of agents which is a positive move in densely populated markets of South Asia. Agencies need to also understand what is at stake, if GIR goes away the market might take a 70-80% hit and in the current climate of negative sentiments for Canada and Australia can they really afford that? They need to wholly participate in the Agent Quality Framework (AQF) recommendations and get their counselors certified to show the sector that they are equally committed to protecting what is at stake. Applications need to be vetted so that documentation fraud is detected at the source rather than universities spending significant amount of resources in credibility checks.

Lastly, the students who have dreams to build a new life away from home. A hard fact to accept is that almost 90% of you will not end up working in the UK long-term. But that does not mean your dream to explore the world as a global citizen is over. International qualifications are invaluable assets which help you in securing opportunities across the world. We also have to accept that the world is very competitive and we have to make ourselves stand out amongst the competition by adding skills and experiences. Reputed UK degree in an area of global need/demand will make you a sought-after professional only if you have also invested in yourself beyond the classroom. The most critical change that a student has to make is being proactive rather than reactive.

I am sure many of view might have a different view of this based on your area of expertise and I would love to hear that. All we can do now is keep our fingers crossed and hope the UK government adopts the recommendations made by the MAC and we retain GIR unchanged.