The University of Bristol is a thriving, dynamic, creative and attuned place. Internationalisation is a crucial part of that. Without it, the University would become inward-looking and passive, concentrating on parochial issues and comprising a much less diverse student and staff population. Our prime reasons for pursuing internationalisation are that:
If we wanted to encapsulate the reasons for internationalisation, we might repeat that the word education is derived from the Latin e-duco, to lead out. We are in a stronger position to “lead out”, to educate and to be educated if we are internationalised: in short, we are a better university.
In any international interaction, it is essential we are clear about the added value it brings to the international partner and the added value it brings to the University. If this cannot easily be articulated for both parties, it is sensible to exercise caution in developing the project further. With this in mind, there are a number of specific areas of potential benefit that warrant further exploration: altruism; international students and staff; research and other types of academic interaction; and engagement with particular countries and regions.
i) Altruism
It is entirely appropriate for staff to assist other countries and societies in their development. There are myriad ways this can be done, so there is no point in giving guidance for specific projects. It is important to be sure that the effort involved is really giving an appropriate return to that country and society and also to ensure that staff maintain a balance between this and their core work of teaching and research in Bristol. However, success in these projects can greatly enrich us as a University and a city – as does the Bristol-Kenya project, for example.
ii) Individual countries and regions
Do we consider that some countries have priority over others? The answer is a qualified negative. There are obviously some countries whose size and centrality to present and future global events means that it is inevitable we will concentrate on them: Europe and the accession states, North America, the Far East, India, Russia, Brazil and Mexico are the main examples. There are others where the political situation or other considerations mean that doing business with them is very difficult. These are not necessarily developing countries. Japan, which offers rich possibilities, also requires sophisticated knowledge and sustained effort before successful interactions can occur.
Knowledge of an individual country is paramount here. Received wisdom in the UK about many countries is often simply wrong. In considering initiating a project with a specific country, it is essential that a visit takes place, that you draw your own conclusions about the state of development, the state of the physical and intellectual infrastructure, the cultural differences within the country, especially outside the capital, and the ease with which relationships could be prosecuted. Advice will be essential, but it is probably best coming from someone within the country rather than a soi-disant British expert.
It bears repetition that the only higher education environment that objectively performs better than the UK is North America and it is important that we continue to concentrate on increasing both our activity and our profile there.
iii) Students
It is essential is that we take our responsibilities as hosts very seriously. Firstly, we must not oversell ourselves. Some of the statements and advertisements other universities use abroad present a picture that is very far from the reality of studying and living at those institutions. Secondly, we must ensure that we are greeting and looking after these students in the best possible way both academically and socially. It is a very unsettling and challenging time when you sit in a foreign country, far from home, and realise that you have to make your way on your own resources for a sustained period. Our international students must feel properly supported, that their needs are recognised and fulfilled and that we are committed to them. It is testable whether we are currently fulfilling these responsibilities as well as we could.
We have planned strategically that international students should represent approximately 15% of all students and that we will aim to increase the post-graduate proportion of that, particularly research postgraduates.
iv) Staff
Attracting and keeping the very best staff from around the globe is essential for an international university. We must ensure our searches for new staff are truly global. We must also ensure that we welcome and support new international staff in the best way possible.
There is resentment in some countries over visiting groups whose main ambition is to attract the best local staff to their UK institution permanently. Of course, if we have a position to fill, we should do a global search. However, if we are negotiating staff and student mobility with an institution or a country, those negotiations should be based on the belief that it is our explicit ambition that the individuals involved will be returning to their native country. They will have given much to our University whilst here and our part of the bargain is that they will have extra to give back to their own country through their experiences at Bristol.
v) Research
We believe that it is in research that international collaborations have the most potential to benefit us. Research problems are now complex and multi-factorial. They are best addressed by pooling intellectual and infrastructural resources. There is a particular productivity that comes from combining different intellectual and disciplinary approaches. No university has the resources to address a globally significant research problem alone. International collaborations may also have the benefit of creating access to new and different funding streams. Whilst there should be no barrier to any academic pursuing any international research collaboration, there are some general considerations to be taken into account.
Most research is both expensive and time consuming. There is a small amount of room for research projects with developing countries that give most benefit to the other partner. Overall, however, we must be clear what added value an international project brings to us. The most successful research environment in the world is North America and it is here that there is a concentration of peer universities with which we can have productive collaborations. Clearly, Europe is also very fertile ground. In many other countries, there will be significant possibilities because they can enable field work which would be impossible in the UK.
There are some caveats. Much talk about the research environment in some countries is ill-informed. Often, high quality research is concentrated in only a few major universities and national institutes. There are still anxieties about the freedom of intellectual discourse in some countries. There is often a significant gap between the quality of their research infrastructure and what we would generally expect. There is much talk of creating “world-class” universities from scratch within ten years in various parts of the world. Most commentators would argue that a university can only be considered “world class” when it has demonstrated world-class output in its students and in its knowledge generation over a period of decades. These considerations should be taken into account when contemplating a new international partner.
vi) Other academic interactions
Many of our academics interact internationally, outside teaching and research, with governments, other policy bodies, charities and NGOs, global and local companies and the media. Such interactions are to be welcomed as long as the burden involved does not impact negatively on academics’ core work.