I’ve been in a reflective mood recently, as I approach the end of my tenure as chief executive of the UK Council for International Trainee Affairs (UKCISA). As the proud recipient of The PIE’s Lifetime Effect Award for 2026, I’ve had additional factor to look back over my career and review how worldwide student experience has shaped my world expertly and personally.
What started as an important part of my languages bachelor’s degree has actually developed into a satisfying profession, working to ensure others can access similar chances and transformative experiences.
As an Erasmus exchange student in France and Spain, and as an undergraduate and postgraduate in the UK, I made friends and connections with a global student community, consisting of peers from Latin America, USA, Europe, New Zealand and North Africa. Those varied social circles formed my world view, while being away from home and studying in a second language taught me strength and curiosity. I understood that we can be different and still have so much in typical. I learned the value of student support networks, and how they can be the distinction between growing or merely coping when you’re far from your friends and family at home.
After finishing, I invested 10 years in the language services industry. Along with being an excellent suitable for somebody with language and intercultural abilities, it likewise allowed me to begin returning to trainees who came after me.
As a company, I had the ability to provide opportunities for trainees from universities throughout London– a number of them international– to access meaningful work experience. Supporting their employability seemed like a way to give back with the useful experience that I had not had the ability to benefit from. More importantly, I found out how students can gain from short-term employability opportunities during their research studies, or immediately postgraduation.
Moving into the general public sector at the then-National Centre for Languages, I had the ability to straight support others in their personal and professional advancement, and enhance graduate employability. I became associated with groundbreaking Labour government-funded efforts designed to encourage youths to see languages as a passport to chance, and national plans that brought universities together to collaborate regionally and engage with regional schools to promote language knowing and intercultural abilities.
It was here that I started to understand the value of federal government policy in supporting the student experience. It was my very first experience of connecting storytelling to policy initiatives, reacting to labour market needs and UK federal government’s strategic aspirations.
After the coalition federal government came to power and Michael Gove as education secretary had other plans for the advancement of languages and intercultural abilities, I constructed a freelance consultancy. This work expanded my knowledge of college, working directly to support different organizations, each with its own obstacles to solve and opportunities to seize. It was throughout this phase that the special chance arose to move to Universities UK International (UUKi) and lead the very first UK National Strategy on Outward Movement. This expanded my policy knowledge and fostered a greater understanding of the impact of worldwide trainees in the UK, alongside the effect of international experience on UK students.
Most just recently, at UKCISA, I have actually been privileged to add to work that places the international student experience at the heart of policy advocacy. This function links every thread of my profession: student experience, intercultural exchange, student mobility, language, chance, and the power of global education to form society.
Advocating at a nationwide level is thrilling and sobering in equivalent step. The stakes are high, and narratives matter. When policy narratives can be dehumanising, UKCISA works to promote for the individual as well as the broader international trainee experience. One of the aspects of my career that has been most satisfying is the #WeAreInternational Trainee Ambassador Program, and the manner in which these individuals, with their motivating stories, have formed policy for themselves and their peers.
All of us operating in global education can see beyond the media stories that generalise, because we understand that trainees are individuals with their own story and their own ambitions. Their goals and their sacrifices should have acknowledgment and support, as do those that work in turn to enhance the worldwide trainee experience. UKCISA’s #WeAreInternational work, our charter, our ambassadors and most recently, our awards, seek to help others to see that too.
The typical thread that pulls it all together is a belief– shaped by personal experience– in the value of worldwide education for our society, and a dedication to assisting global trainees feel included and supported to accomplish whatever success suggests to them
The eagle-eyed among you will note that this has been an opportunistic rather than strategic profession progression, but the typical style is that I have been able to work on programs and efforts that resulted in opportunities for people from around the globe, alongside talented, imaginative and thoughtful people. When you’ve been as lucky as I am to have such great coworkers and collaborators, it makes working life even more rewarding.
This collaborative method will be necessary, as the UK education sector navigates substantial policy modification ahead, with tighter Basic Compliance Assessment (BCA) limits and the proposed introduction of a worldwide trainee levy, it is essential that institutions and sector agents work collectively to preserve our world-leading international trainee experience.
This self-reflection has reminded me of the advice I frequently give to trainees, or indeed to policymakers when talking about graduate employability– our careers do not always outline a straight line, and success is not only determined in graduate schemes. My own has moved through various sectors, contrasting government policies, unanticipated chances and personal obstacles. The typical thread that pulls all of it together is a belief– formed by personal experience– in the significance of global education for our society, and a dedication to helping international trainees feel included and supported to attain whatever success indicates to them.
I take pride in my impact to date, but I understand that more lies ahead. Due to the fact that if there’s something I’ve learned throughout my career, it’s that international education isn’t just a market– it creates meaningful connections at a private and nationwide level, promotes empathy, and leads to favorable change. We need these things more than ever today.
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