Alumni Voices: Insights from International Graduates of UK Education

Alumni UK is the largest global network for international UK alumni, connecting people from around the world who have studied in the UK.

Working with ACER UK, the British Council has designed a survey to collect data from members of Alumni UK.

The dual objectives of the study are:

To gather robust evidence of the value of international education in the UK.
To evaluate the Alumni UK programme.

The ambition is to run this survey annually and build a longitudinal dataset over the coming years. This report is a reflection of the inaugural (pilot) round of the survey which ran from December 2023 to January 2024.

The survey and interviews covered the following broad areas:

UK education experience
Career
The Alumni UK platform
World today (perceptions of the UK, and the UK’s place in the world)

Selected findings:

Graduates have overwhelmingly positive views of their UK study experience and the majority have recommended the UK as a study destination and as a place to visit.
UK education was perceived as enhancing various skills and attributes, particularly intercultural skills and global citizenship.
Respondents generally found their UK education beneficial for their careers, citing its impact on their professional development, international opportunities, and networking capabilities.
Overall, respondents held a highly favourable view of the UK, with 92.6% rating it 6+ on a scale of 0 to 10. Respondents overwhelmingly viewed people from the UK as open and welcoming (8.01) and saw the UK as a force for good in the world (7.87). UK's world-leading arts and cultural institutions (8.79) and academic research were particularly highly rated (9.16).

Citation:

Krstic, S., & Towne, A. (2024). Alumni Voices - Insights from international graduates of UK education. British Council. doi.org/10.57884/A9HK-5C36