Tag: Responsibility

  • High quality recruitment practices is everyone’s responsibility

    High quality recruitment practices is everyone’s responsibility

    The UK’s international higher education sector is at yet another crossroads.

    The positioning of international students as not only economic contributors to universities, but also cultural and intellectual assets to our campuses and communities is a well-told tale. But with ever-increasing government scrutiny of international recruitment practice, it is essential that the sector can unequivocally demonstrate that it operates with integrity and transparency.

    It is not just the government institutions must convince of the UK’s commitment to high quality opportunities, but students themselves to ensure the UK remains a destination of choice.

    Last month, IDP published its global commitment to quality and, as part of this, announced we are fully compliant with the British Council’s Agent Quality Framework (AQF). I imagine some might read that and ask “so what? Were you not already working in a compliant way already?”

    To be clear, we were (and always have been) committed to being ethical and responsible in our approach to recruitment, and it is what our partners know and trust us for. But our public commitment to the AQF in January 2024 and more latterly basic compliance assessment (BCA) requirements changes inspired us to have a wholesale review of our processes to ensure all our processes and practices drive quality. Transparency matters more now than ever – the more reassurance we can give our partners that we take our role in their student recruitment seriously sends the right signal to the government that we are committed to sustainable growth focused on right metrics.

    We are in this for the right reasons, that is, the right students, with the right standards and intentions, going to the right universities to complete their studies while living and thriving in our towns and cities. But it’s our hope that by being public about our official compliance, we can encourage others to do the same.

    The fact it has taken us, a well-established world-leading recruitment partner, months to feel confident the checks and balances are in place and that we have full adherence to the framework, demonstrates the complexity behind compliance. As we go along, we’ll no doubt learn more about how we can improve and strengthen those assurances to our partners (and therefore to the government) that international education is not full of ‘bad actors’.

    This is about more than compliance with external standards. It is a need for the international education community to be loud and proud about our work at a time when quality assurance in recruitment is under a brighter spotlight than ever.

    Regulation, regulation, regulation

    The UK government has made clear that international student recruitment cannot be divorced from broader debates around immigration, compliance and the sustainability of the sector. Parliamentary inquiries. Home Office interventions. The MAC review. The Immigration White Paper. The Home Office English Language Test. Freedom of Information requests. Intensified media focus. All this has raised questions about whether recruitment practice is always consistent with the standards expected of a world-leading education system. And this isn’t just about immigration rhetoric – this is about how those practices impact students and the enormous financial and emotional investment they make in choosing the UK for higher education, and make them feel their investment is worth it.

    In this environment, questions may be asked as to whether self-regulation is sufficient. The AQF, developed by the British Council in partnership with BUILA, UKCISA and Universities UK International, provides the only recognised, sector-wide framework for professionalism, ethical practice, and student-centred advice. To ignore or sidestep it is to invite greater external regulation and risk undermining already-precarious confidence in the sector.

    International students deserve more than transactional recruitment processes; they deserve ethical, transparent, and student-first guidance that empowers them to make the right choices for their future. Likewise, the UK needs to demonstrate to policymakers that the sector is capable of regulating itself to the highest standard.

    Quality is a shared responsibility

    The AQF sets out clear principles in five areas; organisational behaviour, ethical business practice, objective advice and guidance, student-centred practice and organisational competence

    Compliance across all these standards is not the endpoint. Instead, it is a baseline for our work. Compliance establishes credibility, but the leadership requires continuous improvement and a proactive commitment to go beyond minimum requirements.

    The onus is now on all organisations involved in international student recruitment – universities, agents, sub-agents, aggregators and service providers – to align with the AQF and evidence their compliance. AQF compliance is a collective responsibility. The question is no longer whether institutions and agents should adopt the AQF, but instead how quickly they can demonstrate alignment and ensure that these standards are consistently embedded in practice. Anything less risks weakening trust in the UK’s international education offer.

    The message to the sector is clear – quality must take precedence over volume until we are confident we’re in a position to grow sustainably and deliver on student expectations. Only by embedding AQF standards across all recruitment channels can the UK demonstrate to government, students and the wider international community that it is serious about maintaining excellence.

    The UK has an opportunity to lead globally on quality standards. Let’s do it together.

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  • Extremist Group Claims Responsibility for “Swatting” Calls

    Extremist Group Claims Responsibility for “Swatting” Calls

    The University of Colorado Boulder is one of more than a dozen schools to receive swatting calls over the past week.

    Aaron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post/Getty Images

    A person who goes by the name Gores online claimed responsibility for the flurry of so-called swatting calls made to colleges and universities over the past several days, Wired reported.

    Gores is the self-proclaimed leader of an online group called Purgatory, which is linked to a violent online extremist network called The Com, according to Wired. Alongside another Purgatory member called tor, Gores began placing fake calls to campus and local emergency services about active shooters about noon Aug. 21, the same day the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Villanova University received swatting calls. 

    As of Wednesday afternoon, Inside Higher Ed counted 19 confirmed swatting calls since Aug. 19, including at Mercer University, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, the University of Utah and the University of New Hampshire.

    Not all of the calls placed by Purgatory have been successful. In some cases, authorities correctly identified the calls as hoaxes. When the group placed a call to Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa., a researcher listening in on the call was able to alert the university. The FBI is investigating the uptick in swatting calls and has not publicly confirmed Purgatory’s involvement. Gores told Wired that the swatting spree will continue for another two months. 

    Purgatory offers to make swatting calls for as little as $20, though the price has increased to $95 since this recent campaign of calls began, according to Wired. Three members of Purgatory were arrested in 2024 and pleaded guilty earlier this year for threats made to a Delaware high school, a trailer park in Alabama, Albany International Airport, an Ohio casino and a private residence in Georgia. 

    Ashley Mowreader contributed to this article.

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  • ‘Make Sure They Speak English’ is Fed’s Only Responsibility to U.S. Kids – The 74

    ‘Make Sure They Speak English’ is Fed’s Only Responsibility to U.S. Kids – The 74

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    Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, President Donald Trump said ‘little tiny bit of supervision’ is all that’s needed for education.



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  • Euro visions: Social responsibility in St Gallen

    Euro visions: Social responsibility in St Gallen

    How very Swiss.

    In most European cities you can always find stories about sixties student protests – but in 1968 in St Gallen in northeastern Switzerland, instead of conflict, five students from Switzerland, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and Norway wanted to find a way to generate some dialogue towards inter-generational consensus on the future.

    They founded the Hochschule St.Gallen für Wirtschafts (St.Gallen University of Applied Sciences) International Students’ Committee to facilitate an exchange between business representatives, researchers and students.

    Today over 50 years on the St. Gallen Symposium is one of the world’s leading conferences for intergenerational dialogue, bringing together global leaders, academics, and young voices to discuss critical challenges shaping the future.

    And naturally, it’s all organised by a team of 30 students taking time out from their studies.

    This afternoon I’ve taken a train out from the bustle of Basel to visit the university that has produced more billionaires than any other European university. In 1898, the St. Gallen Cantonal Parliament founded a trade and commerce academy, and classes began for its initial roll of 8 students 1899 – making what went to become HSG and now the University of St Gallen one of the world’s first business schools.

    Now taking in Economics, Law, Social Sciences, International Affairs and Computer Science, its campus is deliciously brutalist – and for some reason is plonked right in the middle of a residential area on Rosenberg Hill, which if nothing else offers some stunning panoramic views of the city and the Alpstein mountains. Behind the crumbling concrete, though, there’s also a whole bunch of interesting things in its “student experience” worth taking a look at.

    The DNA of the HSG

    The university has always been interdisciplinary ever since it was a Business School, with its “Contextual Studies programme” aimed at creating responsible decision-makers who are equipped with critical skills and the cultural and ethical awareness necessary to make a positive impact in their communities and the future of society.

    Worth 45 ECTS credits (of the bachelors 180), it has eight focus areas – media, culture, history, society, responsibility, creativity, law, and technology – as well as a proper introduction to academic writing and a foreign language component that allows students to choose among 10 different languages at a variety of levels.

    It all culminates in a “portfolio seminar”, an integrative exercise where students link two contextual courses from the same focus area with their core studies through an interdisciplinary research question.

    You’ll see that includes elements that scaffold becoming a student at St Gallen – but there’s more to that process. As we’ve seen right across Europe, all new students are divided into groups and accompanied and supported by two students from higher semesters (“tutors”) who share their personal experiences, answer all questions and provide new students with valuable tips throughout the year.

    In the first week, all new students also take part in an interdisciplinary case study (“Fallstudie”) which builds confidence in networked thinking, teamwork, and critical self-reflection – as well as promoting responsibility, cooperation and belonging while building subject-specific and methodological skills, allowing students to practice essential academic success factors in a supportive environment.

    There’s also 60 oversubscribed spots to become an academic development coach for other students, and a mentoring programme that brings together students with-mid-career professionals – offering alumni a chance to give something back.

    In other words, there’s no hidden curriculum here – students are deliberately given the cheat codes.

    Tentpole events

    That all gets students used to seeing other students leading and getting involved. START Summit 2025 is Europe’s largest event dedicated to early-stage startups, attracting over 7,000 attendees including founders, investors, speakers and (aspiring) entrepreneurs, with students engaged in networking, workshops and pitch competitions.

    oikos is a leading sustainability project run by 100 student volunteers managing nine projects, including quality education, health, and social innovation. And HSG Talents is its student run careers festival, featuring the usual stalls as well as company insights, interviews, workshops, and case studies – as well as offshoot projects like company dinners, Mix, Shake, Associate, a a scavenger hunt through the streets of the city to selected restaurants, and a networking event where students create chocolates, sushi, burgers, or tapas and establish meaningful connections.

    Meanwhile St.Gallen Strategy Days is a two-day geopolitical simulation where students and young professionals step into the roles of ministers, CEOs, generals, and activists to tackle a complex global crisis like Middle East conflicts, energy shocks, and shifting alliances, making high-stakes decisions that shape simulated outcomes. And its Children’s University introduces children in the region to socially relevant topics beyond their regular school curriculum.

    Oh, and Get Connected brings together LGBTQIA+ students and professionals, facilitating the intergenerational exchange of experience; SHSG Summer School is a two-week coding bootcamp organized by the SU; Assessment Guide connects experienced students with first-year students, offering practical support for both academic and social integration and guidance on academic writing, exam preparation, and choosing a major; and the SU’s appeal advisory service offers up support from students studying in advanced semesters in law programmes.

    Use your initiatives

    The SU has five so-called “initiatives” – as well as campus media, the Skriptekommission is a student-run non-profit organisation that has been printing scripts and books on behalf of lecturers and selling them to students at fair prices since 1968; Bereich G is the gastronomic initiative that makes the best cappuccinos on campus; and Ressort International facilitates International Student Exchange, especially important since Switzerland was booted out of Erasmus plus a decade or so ago.

    Where in the UK we often see professional staff in universities tussling with (slightly lower paid) professional staff in SUs over who should get the budget to do things for students, this really is a university that appears to want its students to run things, and learn from doing so.

    Probably the best example of that is the fifth “initiative” – the one for student infrastructure. Prior to 2020, various student-run facilities existed (like ad-hoc club rooms or small coworking corners), but they were not centrally managed – so in mid-2020, a newly elected SU leadership team lobbied the university to address the growing demand for student spaces and the desire to get students involved in managing the spaces more professionally. The university’s head of estates sits on its board.

    Its team of students looks after a relaxation room for powernaps, a set of music rooms, a student-run co-working space in the heart of the city, a student-run cultural event facility in the city, a student-run centre for entrepreneurship next to the city’s railway station, and theOFFICE.

    Historically, student societies and projects were scattered in whatever rooms the university could spare, if at all – so the project’s board found a corner of campus, went begging for sponsors and created a clever cluster of temporary office spaces dedicated to associations on campus, and it means they now have a proper “home base” to work from.

    And naturally, so that students can find the time and get recognition for their learning, those running those projects, along with the 140 societies and faculty associations, can accrue up to 14 campus credits (ECTS) towards their final degree.

    Be there or be SQUARE

    A lot of what goes on takes place in the stunning SQUARE – a modular “open grid” structure of stacked glass cubes, promoting transparency, flexibility, and collaboration. Spanning approximately 7,000 square meters, SQUARE offers adaptable spaces for society events, group work, presentations and university events, including rooftop terraces and unique areas like a Japanese-style tea room.

    In the last decade St Gallen saw its fair share of scandals – a postgraduate program was found to be 1.1m francs in debt, there was a professor accused by the Financial Markets Authority of serious failings on one of his boards, another who produced studies that primarily benefited the company where he worked as a consultant, and even one who was remanded in custody for possible fraud in the Audi emissions scandal.

    There was also the rector accused of doctoring share prices, a national plagiarism scandal, and a professor who managed to siphon off 100,000 francs in unauthorized expenses.

    That all led to the creation of a comprehensive HSG Ethics Code and an independent Whistleblowing Office in 2022 – a clear, integrated framework for accountability and ethical conduct across both staff and students that covers everything from academic integrity and workplace conduct to reporting mechanisms and supervisory responsibilities, anti-discrimination requirements, research supervision ethics, and sustainability commitments.

    It’s all backed by universal induction for staff and students, formal regulations and an independent oversight office to prevent the recurrence of past scandals – as well as a dedicated Ombuds Office which aims to promote trust between university members and to solve conflicts in an informal (and very Swiss) way.

    So what might we learn in the UK? It may well be that an already wealthy country is much more likely than others to have its premier Business School top of the tree when it comes to billionaire production.

    But add all that up, and you see how its vision of “impact that has practical relevance” comes to life via real, extensive and tangible opportunities for co-creation across the campus.

    The left of Switzerland’s politics regularly accuses St Gallen of promoting capitalist ideologies and prioritising corporate interests over social equity. But at least it attempts to make sure they get real experience of social responsibility in the process.

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  • Exporting Degrees, Importing Responsibility: Rethinking Careers Support for International Graduates

    Exporting Degrees, Importing Responsibility: Rethinking Careers Support for International Graduates

    By Professor Amanda J. Broderick, Vice-Chancellor & President at the University of East London.

    It wasn’t so long ago that universities across the UK were rallying to preserve the graduate visa route, a vital lifeline for international students and higher education. When the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) concluded there was no significant abuse of the pathway and recognised its immense value, the sector exhaled a collective sigh of relief. Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) underscored this conclusion: 80% of international students leave the UK within five years of arrival.

    But amidst this hard-fought victory, a critical oversight emerged. In our defence of the graduate visa, we inadvertently highlighted the transient nature of international students in the UK, risking the perception of them as only economic contributors rather than showcasing the profound, enduring responsibilities we owe to them as alumni – and their broad value. The reality is, universities have a far greater role to play in empowering international graduates to thrive – not just within the UK, but globally.

    A Broader Vision for Graduate Support

    International students arrive with diverse ambitions. Some envision building careers in the UK, while others plan to apply their skills back home. Regardless, the implicit promise of higher education remains the same: their degree must unlock opportunities and enable them to succeed, whether they are in Hyderabad, Atlanta, Cairo or Athens. But how effectively are we fulfilling this promise?

    We are getting better as a sector at having frank conversations about support for international students while at university – HEPI and Uoffer Global’s recent report on integration challenges facing Chinese students by Pippa Ebel is a good example of this. But as these students graduate, their needs evolve.

    Economic growth is the mantra of the UK government, but this will remain a distant dream if we do not focus on global skills as part of the solution. Business and industry are competing internationally for talent and innovation, and as such, global employability and enterprise are an integral part of the education agenda.

    To truly fulfil our responsibilities, universities must look beyond the campus experience and address the evolving, global needs of their international alumni. This involves building a bridge between academic learning and the economic, cultural, and professional landscapes of not only the UK but our alumni’s home countries too.

    UEL’s Global Employability Model

    At the University of East London (UEL), this principle is central to our mission. My recent visit to India for the UEL 2024 India Summit offers a case study in how universities can redefine global graduate support. With over 8,000 Indian students in 2024, UEL’s commitment to fostering long-term success is clear. The Summit – spanning Chennai, Hyderabad, and Vadodara – brought together leaders from academia, government, and industry to explore partnerships that align a UEL education with India’s economic and societal needs.

    A key outcome of the Summit was the launch of the UEL India Industry Advisory Board. This pioneering collaboration between alumni, industry leaders, and academic experts provides strategic direction on UEL’s curriculum development and enterprise initiatives aligned to India’s workforce demands, while also offering alumni robust post-graduation support. Another important engagement took place at T-Works Innovation Centre in Hyderabad, where we worked with international stakeholders on the practical steps UEL can take to bridge the gap between academia and industry. The result: stronger industry ties, better-prepared graduates, and increased support for retaining high-value talent, reducing brain drain and supporting local innovation.

    These efforts are not isolated. UEL has long been engaged in projects that foster international employability, including partnerships with Tamil Nadu’s government, where we hosted a hackathon and work placement initiative for computer science and engineering students. This initiative resulted in work placements for alumni based in Chennai, opening up career pathways in sectors such as robotics and AI.

    UEL’s forward-thinking approach also extends beyond such events – our international employability offer begins during a student’s degree, with Careers in India mentoring panels and an employer webinar series, opportunities for students to connect with industry professionals and gain insights into fields such as business, HR product design, and digital marketing in India. This support does not finish after graduation; our offer to global alumni includes post-graduation employability boosters, lifelong access to career support portals with free resources, and business incubation and acceleration.

    Perhaps most importantly, we also offer a programme of peer-to-peer mentoring, facilitated by our India alumni chapter and bolstered by our Industry Advisory Board, creating a supportive network that fosters continuous learning and career advancement. Unlike many universities, where alumni engagement is viewed primarily through a philanthropic lens, at UEL it is integral to our mission of creating real-world impact. By empowering our international alumni to ‘pay it forward’, we generate a virtuous cycle of mentorship, opportunity, and success. Through our alumni’s success, we amplify the value of a UK degree, not just for the individual, but for their home countries and the global economy too.

    Rethinking Metrics of Success

    Alongside universities’ own work to ensure they support global graduate employability, we must also look to the role of other stakeholders in this endeavour. As policymakers and universities work together to shape the future of higher education, we must advocate for more nuanced metrics to capture the true global success of our graduates. The Graduate Outcomes Survey (GOS), while valuable, is insufficient to capture the global impact of UK higher education. Refined metrics that capture the contributions of international students to both the UK and their home countries could better highlight the profound influence of UK higher education on a global scale. This data is critical not only for refining university strategies but also for safeguarding the UK’s reputation as a global leader in higher education.

    David Willetts’ recent report with the Resolution Foundation also raises issues with the GOS, pointing out that ‘many graduates are on a long and not necessarily straightforward route to a career,’ and that ‘assessing where they are at 15 months is premature’. This is surely even more pertinent for many of our international graduates, whose circumstances may not be accurately captured by a one-size-fits-all survey. Our support for these students must be based on their specific contexts as much as possible – including how we measure success.

    Above all, the responsibility to support international graduates does not end at graduation. The world is changing, and the future workforce demands new skills and global collaboration. By supporting international graduates throughout their careers, we help them not only succeed but also lead the way in shaping the jobs the world needs tomorrow. In partnership with business, government, and stakeholders beyond, we can ensure that our international graduates are equipped to thrive in a rapidly evolving global economy – both for their own success and for the benefit of communities worldwide.

    At UEL, we are committed to this vision. By nurturing a cycle of mentorship and opportunity, we aim to empower our alumni to transform their communities and industries. Their success is our success – and a testament to the enduring value of UK HE. It’s time for the sector to embrace its role as a global enabler, ensuring that every graduate not only thrives but becomes a beacon of the UK’s educational excellence around the world.

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