The UK is getting a new tool to measure its universities achievements in internationalisation. The Global Engagement Index was unveiled this week by Education Insight, a UK based research consultancy specialising in international higher education. Education Insight insists that the Index is not another league table, but is instead a much more holistic approach to measuring the strengths and weaknesses of UK higher education on the world stage.
The new Index uses 30 new measures to deliver overall scores out of five for UK institutions, with variables being measured including continuation rates and proportion of domestic students with study abroad experience.
The project which is the brainchild of Dr Janet Ilieva and Vincenzo Raimo, emerged due to their belief that there is an over emphasis among universities and government on the export value of international students.
At the launch event for the Index, Dr Ilieva highlighted that the purpose of the Index was to ‘produce something that shows what institutions are good at in terms of international higher education.’ Things that they believe truly matter and not just what regulators think are important. Dr Ilieva continued by stating that they had tried to make the Index as inclusive as possible and thus they had only looked at proportions because they ‘already knew who the biggest recruiters of international students and the main providers of transnational education are.’
Consequently, the Global Engagement Index is divided into two main parts. Section A concentrates on the demand side of global engagement and the success of international students at different UK universities. Section B looks at the supply side and the comparative performance of the institutional infrastructure to support internationalisation. The best performing universities are given five stars whilst the lowest performing universities are given only one one star for the different sections.
A particular focus of the Index will be the international dimension within the curricula, something that was done by analysing the title database from the UK’s Higher Education Statistics Agency and searching for keywords in course titles. This showed that smaller and more specialist universities were joining more obvious big named players at the top of the pile of the Index, something that may not have been readily apparent in the old manner of measuring success.
Education Insight hopes that institutions will use and help to develop the Global Index and demonstrate the real successes of students studying in the UK. Suggestions of how to do this include focusing on: the very low drop out rate which stands at just 3% for non-EU international students;5% for EU students and 7% for UK students. Another area of focus that has been suggested is the proportion of fee waivers given to students from countries receiving UK Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) by different UK universities, and the proportion of collaborative research with ODA receiving countries.
The Index has received a relatively positive reception. With Paul Greatrix of the University of Nottingham telling WONKHE that the Index is ‘really interesting and a helpful project.’ Greatrix highlighted that the analysis showed that the percentage of successful outcomes for international undergraduate students appeared to be significantly higher than for domestic students and that this warranted further exploration.
The Global Engagement Index is aiming to change things up in the international higher education market, this is something that could be a welcome change for universities and allow students to more accurately assess their options. Something that should be welcomed by all.
International Higher Education 