If International Students Take Paid Employment While Studying, What Types of Work Do They Do?

Submission from the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS) in response to the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) call for evidence on the impact of international students in the UK

About AGCAS

AGCAS is the expert membership organisation for higher education student career development and graduate employment professionals. Through our members, we support the best possible career outcomes from higher education for individuals, institutions, society and the economy. AGCAS represents 98% of careers services within the HE sector, providing professional development and sharing best practice.

There are many areas within the call for evidence which fall outside the remit of AGCAS and therefore we have provided responses to the questions where AGCAS members have expert knowledge.

If international students take paid employment while studying, what types of work do they do?

Anecdotal evidence from a range of universities shows that international students undertake work on or off campus, in the form of part time work or internships.

Typical off campus roles are:

• Catering, bar and waiting roles; retail sales assistant
• Tutoring
• Embassy work (if there’s a family/friends connection)
• Various visitor/customer services roles at tourist attractions or hotels
• Office administration
• Translation work using their home language
• Match day assistant roles at local sports clubs
• Extra work for films

Additionally, a very capable student with a specific skill set might obtain a technical part time role in a company, such as CAD and work shop machining roles for engineering students or technical roles in a start-up for computer scientists.

Typical on campus roles are:

• Campus shop sales assistant
• Catering and bar roles
• Employer brand ambassador
• Halls and student union jobs
• Campus/student representatives
• Disability support assistants
• Events assistants
• Cleaning assistants
• Administration roles for an academic department
• Customer services or support roles with IT and library services
• Casual work as events assistants or helpers at open days
• Laboratory assistant/technical/demonstrator (particularly relevant for PhD students)
• Research and teaching
• Translation

In addition some international students focus on gaining experience relevant to their degree rather than getting part-time work. This can be obtained through work experience schemes run by their university. For example, the University of Huddersfield runs an internship programme offering paid opportunities with local businesses. For the 2016‒2017 round of this programme 5 of the 20 internshipsoffered were secured by international students and the roles were ‘sales development’, ‘research and development manager’, ‘test engineer’, ‘business development and customer research’ and ‘software development’. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine annually recruits four students to be paid Careers Project Assistants, working on a project beneficial to both the careers service and the students’ own career through the development of networks or relevant skills.

Some universities have recognised the benefits that international students can bring to the local economy, through part time work or internships. One such example is UWE’s Bristol International Talent Programme. The programme aims to provide international students with work experience and access to UK businesses whilst completing their academic studies. Employers are able to access a wide portfolio of services such as translation and interpreting, researching and identifying new markets, liaising with key suppliers, customers, and clients in specific markets, and providing cultural insight. The scheme is mutually beneficial; students hone their UK business acumen and employers are able to capitalise on students’ cultural and linguistic assets.

Despite the above, the reality for many international students is that they struggle to find part time work. This is due to language difficulties meaning they can’t compete with their UK/European counterparts, lack of contacts, lack of previous experience or relevant experience and cultural differences that make the application process a challenge. Often students try and gain some experience through voluntary work to build transferable skills and confidence, where they have not managed to get part time paid work, however this again can be tricky with many volunteering roles requiring the need for a DBS check. In order for international students to acquire the equivalent of this they need to apply for a ‘certificate of good conduct’ from their home country and this process can be extremely complex and lengthy making the ability to undertake this volunteering particularly problematic. This is especially an issue for international students undertaking education or teaching related degree courses who are looking to gain experience of working with children/young people alongside their course.

What are the broader labour market impacts of students transferring from Tier 4 to Tier 2 including on net migration and on shortage occupations?

This is difficult to comment on but evidence would suggest thatinternational students who want to work in the UK usually only want to do this for a short period and the medium-long term goal is to return to their home country.As quoted by ONS in their recent survey:

Additional data on graduating international students’ post-study intentions and how sure they are of these intentions was also collected; 75% of responding non-EU graduating students planned to stay for less than 12 months in the UK after completing their courses. Overall, 46% of non-EU graduating students stated that they were not certain about their post-study migration plans. Of the quarter of responding students stating that they intended to stay in the UK or to remain longer than 12 months, 59% also indicated they were uncertain of their intentions (Figure 3). If students are uncertain of their plans after study, this will affect how they answer the third of the criteria used to identify long-term emigrants.

Anecdotal evidence from a Careers Adviser at the University of Liverpool would suggest that other cultures have much stronger family commitments and responsibilities than we do in the UK and so the focus is rarely for long term settlement. There is a perception of western experience as a way of learning ‘good practice’ which they can then take back to their home countries.This is based on over 200 interviews where the adviser has asked them about their goals.

With regards to shortage occupations, we have outlined the types of occupation that international graduates go on to do in the question below.

A colleague at the University of Liverpool has also noticed that the number of Indian students studying in the UK has dropped (44% decrease in the last five years: UKCISA). In particularthey have lost a lot of Postgraduate students who have engineering and technical backgrounds. Many of the postgraduate and MBA students who were coming from India did have those types of backgrounds so maybe there is an argument for reinstating the Science, Engineering route and widening it for STEM to support the critical shortage of STEM skills in the UK.There is an interesting report on this provided by CaSE (Campaign for Science and Engineering):

Whether, and to what extent, migrant students enter the labour market, when they graduate and what types of post-study work do they do?

There is no doubt that, of the number of international students studying in the UK, the number who enter the labour market in the UK is minimal. To give a picture of this, across four institutions providing 2015‒16 DLHE statistics for their international cohort, on average 17% of those who responded and who reported their employment location had secured employment in the UK. It is also difficult to provide a valid picture utilising DLHE statistics as institutions are only required to achieve a 20% response rate from their international students as opposed to 80% of their UK-domiciled students. Our assumption would be that the percentage of total international students entering the labour market in the UK is actually much lower than this due to those remaining in the UK being easier to contact/more likely to respond to the survey than those who return home/work overseas.

With regards to the types of post-study work they do, aggregated 2015‒16 DLHE data across threeRussell Group Universities indicated that international graduates go on to a range of occupations in the UK:

Occupation (SOC) / Count
Medical practitioners / 97
University researchers, unspecified discipline / 56
Researchers n.e.c. / 47
Veterinarians / 38
Higher education teaching professionals / 33
Business and related associate professionals n.e.c. / 29
Finance and investment analysts and advisers / 26
Management consultants and business analysts / 21
Biochemists, medical scientists / 19
Archivists and curators / 19
Programmers and software development professionals / 18
Business and financial project management professionals / 15
Business, research and administrative professionals n.e.c. / 12
Social and humanities scientists / 11
Health professionals n.e.c. / 11
Statisticians / 10
Chief executives and senior officials / 9
Teaching and other educational professionals n.e.c. / 8
Secondary education teaching professionals / 8
Nurses / 8
Pathologists / 7
Other administrative occupations n.e.c. / 7
Natural and social science professionals n.e.c. / 7
Welfare and housing associate professionals n.e.c. / 6
Marketing associate professionals / 6
Journalists, newspaper and periodical editors / 6
Health services and public health managers and directors / 6
Economists / 6
Legal associate professionals / 5
Laboratory technicians / 5
IT business analysts, architects and systems designers / 5
Functional managers and directors n.e.c. / 5
Sales accounts and business development managers / 4
Public relations professionals / 4
Pharmacists / 4
Ophthalmic opticians / 4
Legal professionals n.e.c. / 4
Human resources and industrial relations officers / 4
Finance managers and directors / 4
Engineering professionals n.e.c. / 4
Conference and exhibition managers and organisers / 4
Architectural and town planning technicians / 4
Solicitors / 3
Sales and retail assistants / 3
Physiotherapists / 3
Information technology and telecommunications professionals n.e.c. / 3
Dental practitioners / 3
Biologists / 3
Therapy professionals n.e.c. / 2
Teaching assistants / 2
Senior professionals of educational establishments / 2
Science, engineering and production technicians n.e.c. / 2
Pharmacologists / 2
Officers in armed forces / 2
Human resource managers and directors / 2
Further education teaching professionals / 2
Financial accounts managers / 2
Education advisers and school inspectors / 2
Chartered and certified accountants / 2
Business sales executives / 2
Brokers / 2
Bacteriologists, microbiologists, etc. / 2
Welfare professionals n.e.c. / 1
Waiters and waitresses / 1
Veterinary nurses / 1
Typists and related keyboard occupations / 1
Travel agents / 1
Transport and distribution clerks and assistants / 1
Sports coaches, instructors and officials / 1
Sports and leisure assistants / 1
Special needs education teaching professionals / 1
School secretaries / 1
Sales administrators / 1
Research/ development chemists / 1
Research and development managers / 1
Public services associate professionals / 1
Property, housing and estate managers / 1
Production managers and directors in manufacturing / 1
Production managers and directors in construction / 1
Primary and nursery education teaching professionals / 1
Planning, process and production technicians / 1
Personal assistants and other secretaries / 1
National government administrative occupations / 1
Medical secretaries / 1
Mechanical engineers / 1
Mathematicians / 1
Managers and proprietors in agriculture and horticulture / 1
Local government administrative occupations / 1
Library clerks and assistants / 1
Leisure and travel service occupations n.e.c. / 1
Leisure and theme park attendants / 1
Leisure and sports managers / 1
IT operations technicians / 1
Human resources administrative occupations / 1
Housing officers / 1
Health and safety officers / 1
Graphic designers / 1
Financial and accounting technicians / 1
Exhibition, multimedia designers / 1
Environmental health professionals / 1
Elementary storage occupations / 1
Electronics engineers / 1
Customer service occupations n.e.c. / 1
Construction project managers and related professionals / 1
Cleaners and domestics / 1
Civil engineers / 1
Chemical scientists n.e.c. / 1
Buyers and procurement officers / 1
Biological scientists and biochemists n.e.c. / 1
Authors, writers and translators / 1
Artists / 1
Actuaries, economists and statisticians n.e.c. / 1
Actuaries / 1

Of those Universities, two were also able to provide their international graduate destination data by Standard Industrial Classification (SIC), their employment destinations covered 18 of the 21 SIC areas:

Major grouping SIC / Count
Human health and social work activities / 144
Education / 90
Professional, scientific and technical activities / 87
Arts, entertainment and recreation / 30
Public administration and defence; compulsory social security / 24
Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles / 15
Manufacturing / 12
Information and communication / 9
Administrative and support service activities / 5
Activities of extraterritorial organisations and bodies / 5
Other service activities / 3
Financial and insurance activities / 2
Construction / 1
Transport and storage / 1
Real estate activities / 1
Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities / 1
Accommodation and food service activities / 1
Mining and quarrying / 1

Anecdotal feedback from professionals working in careers services in higher education suggests that international students find it very difficult to secure graduate level work in the UK. Whilst part of this is due to the competitive nature of the graduate recruitment market, international applicants have the added barrier of visa restrictions and a very limited timescaleof 12 weeks within which to secure employment following their course completion. According to data provided by UKCISA ( , 105,970 of the 285,120 non EU students in HE in 2015‒16 are studying taught postgraduate (TPG) courses. International students on TPGcourses have a particular struggle with this limited timescale. As their course is only 12 months, most are unable to gain any kind of structured work experience due to the majority of UK recruiters only offering internships over the summer months or 12 month placements for undergraduate students. The summer is usually when TPG students are writing their thesis and so would be unable to work full time hours due to the 20hr a week limit on a Tier 4 student visa. Many UK graduate recruiters use these internships and placements as a talent pipeline to their graduate roles meaning that international TPG students are often ‘on the back foot’ before they have even applied for graduate job opportunities. According to the ‘High Fliers’ report – The Graduate Market in 2017, ‘More than a third of the Times Top 100 employers warned that it was either ‘not very likely’ or ‘not at all likely’ that a graduate who’d had no previous work experience at all with any employers would be successful during their selection process and be made a job offer, irrespective of their academic achievements or the university they had attended.’

In addition to the above, many employers are unable to offer to sponsor a Tier 2 work visa for international graduates and even if companies do hold a licence, anecdotally many are not using these for graduate recruitment. There have also been instances of employers wanting to keep on international students who have worked for them previously (quite often through a placement year) but due to the complexity of the visa process, not feeling confident enough or having the in-house legal expertise to go through the process.

The University of Sheffield has provided some video case studies of international students who have gone on to work in the UK after graduation utilising both the Tier 2 and Tier 5 visa. These are a fantastic example of the calibre of our international students and their positive impact on the UK economy. They also outline the tenacity these students need to be successful at securing graduate level work in the UK in light of the complexity of the visa process and the competitiveness of graduate level roles with large organisations (who are most likely to have the ability to sponsor).

Following graduation, some international students start their own business via the Tier 1 Graduate Entrepreneur route. To give an example, across fivehigher education institutions there have been 273 students endorsedsince the universities became endorsing institutions (between 2012 and 2014).Usually, successful uptake of this scheme relies on a strong enterprise service offered to students within the university, to support the development of their application through workshops and one-to-one advisory appointments.

There is a significant challenge in international students obtaining this visa. Government restrictions prevent students from market testing and prototyping to develop an appropriate business plan, as they are unable to freelance or be self-employed on their student visa. This challenge is reflected in the fact that whilst one university has 20 licences per year, only two endorsements have been given. For many universities it is often difficult to give as many endorsements as licences, as students have not had sufficient opportunity to trial their business idea prior to submission due to the aforementioned visa restrictions.