Blog

International education and its benefits

are a big topic of discussion these days at UAO and how it articulates the personal values, beliefs and goals to keep students motivated in their professional lives.

In this regard, UAO has newly identified a team vision of “Inspiring Futures”. This concept is a deeply rooted belief in the power of education, accompanied by a commitment to helping expand access to international education and all the opportunities UAO can support.

Here are 7 of our top reasons to love education and international study:

• Broader Perspectives 

While any form of access to education has the potential to broaden perspectives, this power is especially obvious and potent in the context of international education. One of the key themes identified by our team members (many of whom have studied abroad and/or are currently working outside of their own country), this benefit is consistently cited by international students, academics and anyone else with an interest in the field. Even if you don’t study abroad in person, being part of an internationally diverse community provides invaluable access to multiple contexts, cultures, languages and viewpoints. It’s an opportunity to gain new perspectives on different norms and beliefs, get into the habit of questioning conventions, and practice truly respecting difference.

• Diverse Connections 

A closely related reason to love education, especially when it has an international element, is the chance to establish connections with people from many different backgrounds and walks of life – while at the same time meeting those who share your own interests, passions and aspirations. Universities, particularly those with an international intake, provide a unique kind of foundation for long-lasting friendships and professional collaborations. Again, this is one of the common themes and experiences of our own team members, and also of the international students and graduates we speak to. Universities too are well aware that their internationally diverse students and alumni constitute some of their most valuable assets – many programs now highlight their international intake and lasting professional networks as key attractions.

• Develop and Achieve Your Goals

The next reason to love education relate to opportunities for personal development and achieving aspirations. This can range from gaining the training required to achieve quite specific career goals, to a much less easily pinned-down sense of all-round personal growth. While the first of these goals may be achieved through access to education in any setting, the experience of studying abroad or within an international community can provide a catalyst for accelerated personal development – not least by heightening many of the challenges involved in living independently and meeting academic expectations.

• Professional Skills 

Recent years have seen plenty of debate around the extent to which universities are adequately supporting employability and how students could be better prepared for the workplace. However, it’s still generally accepted that higher education is effective in developing many of the skills, both hard and soft, that employers look for. International education is often held in particularly high esteem, providing opportunities for the experience of multiple cultures and languages which so many enterprises and economies now need and value.

• Equal Opportunities 

Another most common cited reasons to love education is that it has the power to support equal opportunities. Regardless of race, age, gender, financial background or other factor, access to education enables every person to grow and develop, opening up all kinds of new opportunities and experience.

• Innovation

Education is an interactive process, in which teaching and learning feed into and off one another, and the idea of student-centered learning is in various stages of adoption across the world. Bringing together minds from diverse backgrounds, international education carries even more potential for stimulating an interactive and innovative approach, whether at the level of large-scale research ventures, or within an undergraduate-level classroom.

• Benefit To The Society

The final reason to love education is that it benefits not just the individuals who participate, but entire societies and economies. This was another of the key themes identified by our team – access to education not only transforms individual lives, but also has much wider-reaching collective benefits. Again, this has multiple facets, ranging from the research which underlies improvements in healthcare or innovations in information-sharing technology, to providing sufficient numbers of specialists to meet labor market demands. At the less tangible end of the spectrum, international education has the potential to strengthen relationships between economies and cultures, promoting better understanding and partnerships. In effect, international education has the capacity to embody all the most positive aspects of globalization, promoting equal opportunities, mutual respect, exchange of ideas, and effective collaboration to bring about positive changes for both individuals and communities.