Professor Andrew Atherton, Vice-President International and Engagement at the University of Southampton, tells how his involvement with international education started as an undergraduate student at SOAS where he studied Chinese and economics spending his second year in Beijing. His international experience continued studying his Masters’ at Yale University where he also started his academic career, before moving back to the UK to Durham University.

Andrew tells us of the University of Southampton’s strategic goal to become a global institution embracing a multi-nodal model with campuses in diverse international locations and progressing with establishing the first foreign branch campus in India under the University Grants Commission (UGC) regulations. He reflects on the broader strategic drivers behind the University's goal of establishing three branch campuses by 2030, stressing the role that TNE can play in helping institutions take their social mission to widen access to education to the global level. He shares his concerns about recent policy developments restricting international student flows in traditionally receiving anglophone countries, as well as his confidence in the future of international education where TNE will be playing a growing role in meeting growing global demand for education and training closer to home… and he shares the memorable experiences associated with achieving something collectively that you couldn't on your own.