Student exchange and British government policy: UK students study abroad, 1955-1978

When the United Kingdom has figured in the modern history of study abroad, it has featured almost exclusively in the role of host country with little attention paid to the study abroad patterns of UK students. In order to gain a rounded picture of the UK’s role in post-war study abroad, this article explores the position of the UK within the context of the rich data gathered by UNESCO. It argues that there is strong evidence that the UK was actually one of the most active countries in sending its students overseas and that this activity increased (both in absolute terms and relative to other countries) significantly in the 1960s and 70s. Following a brief analysis of the UK’s role as both a host and exporter of study abroad students on a global scale, its relationship as a sender country with two particular geographical areas is considered: firstly, the Commonwealth that has been the focus of much of the existing secondary literature, and secondly, continental Europe, which has featured much less frequently in the work of historians. Various reasons for the significant rise in the number of UK students studying abroad are explored – in particular, the role of government attitudes towards overseas study including the possibility of developing student exchange as an instrument of cultural diplomacy. The article pays particular attention to the period between the publication of the Robbins Report in 1963 and the beginnings of the institutionalisation of study abroad (in Europe) in the late 1970s.