Students should be defined by their creativity, not their governments

If you’re British and reading this, I’m going to assume you backed Tony Blair’s war in Iraq, that you support Brexit and are fully expecting it to lead to additional money for the NHS and you are a backer of Boris Johnson’s plans to pack refugees off to Rwanda.

Have I assumed correctly? I could be right – I could very well be wrong. In either case, imagine I refused to engage with you based on these assumptions gleaned from the policies and rhetoric of the UK government? You would be indignant, and rightly so.

Yet, in the education sector, it is becoming more and more common for international collaboration between institutions – and by association the students they serve – to be inhibited or curtailed by media coverage about nation states and those who rule them.

There are, of course, legitimate questions to be raised about the impact of international education partnerships on science, technology and the financial resilience of the sector, but in these debates the role of the students is usually noticeable only by its omission.

At the University for the Creative Arts our concern is people, not governments. We believe that creativity makes global communities more open, more vibrant and more human. Our curriculum puts the individual at the centre of their own learning, helping them examine creative challenges from multiple angles, encouraging them to explore their own cultural reference points and push at the boundaries of their disciplines.

No one should be denied this style of education because of the behaviour of their government. At UCA we are focused on the next generation – equipping talented young people with the skills and critical thinking that will allow them to shape the future of their countries. In turn, the perspectives of students from different parts of the globe broaden and enrich our understanding, helping us interrogate our own societies. Everyone benefits.

Opening UCA’s first Chinese campus was a landmark moment because of the opportunities it created for aspiring artists, designers and business leaders in the region. We’ve encouraged them to experiment, to think critically and to take creative risks. My commitment to these students is solid, because these young people are the future – a future we have a hand in shaping.

The reality is that higher education is now global. We are all fully aware of the complex political and economic problems that accompany globalisation, not least of which is the concomitant increase in various forms of nationalism. It is something that the UK is not immune to, and it may have been one of the driving forces behind Brexit. It may also be behind some of the antagonism directed towards international students in the UK. This is something we need to be mindful of and, speaking for myself, as a one-time international student, who benefited enormously from the political and educational freedoms of the UK, I believe nationalism is potentially a real threat to these freedoms.

The increasing internationalisation of higher education is not only an economic necessity, but should be a cause of great pride in the UK. According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency, in 2020-21, 162 UK universities were delivering transnational education (TNE) to 510,835 students in over 225 countries and territories worldwide. There were 605,130 international students studying at UK higher education institutions in 2020-21, of which 452,225 were non-EU students with the largest number coming from China (143,820) followed by India (84,555) and Nigeria (13,020).

China has also not been immune to the rise of nationalism and there are legitimate objections to various government policies by critics inside and outside the country. However, the same is true of India, which is currently ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has attracted a lot of criticism regarding human rights, as has Nigeria. Unfortunately, it is also true, to some extent, of the UK and other Western nations.

Ideological conflicts within and between nations are as inevitable as they are complex, and it’s important for universities to be aware of them and to ensure that they are not implicated or complicit with policies that go against their values. We should also remember that access to education is a basic human right, and in higher education, I believe that extends to access to international education and research. We should aspire to a world in which higher education is equally accessible to all on the basis of merit. Universities need to ensure that they maintain an outward focus and consider how TNE and branch campuses can contribute to the global development of higher education.

Throughout my career, from being a student to becoming a vice-chancellor, I have always believed that the greatest strengths of universities have been in their openness and outward-looking perspective. Nationalism – closed and inward-looking – is the opposite to this and it’s vital that we are always alert to its many manifestations, in our own country and those of our partners.

We need to be able to distinguish between legitimate concerns and scaremongering that seeks to close down important, hard-won international partnerships. Some concerns are well intended and not motivated by nationalism, but can still lead to reinforced division and isolation which, ultimately, diminishes opportunities for students and the innumerable social and economic benefits of international education and research partnerships.

There are many outstanding universities in the UK with international campuses around the world, including China, which is also now the UK’s third most important research partner. Much of the critical attention of these partnerships has been in the areas of technology and science, but as the vice-chancellor of UCA, my focus is on cultural and creative engagement. This is not only because the creative industries are essentially a global sector, in which the UK is a world leader, but because I believe the creative and cultural industries are the best possible areas for cultural understanding.

It is through creative arts education and cultural collaborations that people are most able to communicate above and beyond international political and social divisions. It is the realm in which progressive, open thinking and understanding is most likely to flourish through the celebration of cultural difference.

This is an outlook shared by the British Council, which supports and promotes the work of UK university campuses in China, and which believes that the “UK has an opportunity to harness the soft power that it enjoys with China and its connections with the Chinese people, through its links in education, language, governance and culture, to mitigate potential tensions and maintain mutually beneficial relationships”.

Whatever your thoughts on the idea of the exercising of “soft power” in the national interest, I think most people would find it difficult to disagree with these declared aims. At the very least, I hope such ideas won’t prevent you from realising your creative talent.

Bashir Makhoul is president and vice-chancellor at the University for the Creative Arts.