The proportion of students who graduate with a first or a 2:1 is almost 20 percentage points higher for those who study abroad than it is for those who remain in the UK, data in the Gone International: Mobile Students And Their Outcomes report suggest.
Those studying science, technology, engineering or maths subjects get the most benefit from travelling overseas in terms of their final degree classification. About 83 per cent of “mobile” students in these subjects achieved a first or an upper-second class degree in 2012-13 compared with 64 per cent of those who did not travel.
The report, published by the UK Higher Education International Unit, finds that 87 per cent of travelling non-language students got the top grades, compared with 69 per cent of non-mobile students.