I Live Here (For Now): The Challenges of Career Development Planning for International Staff and Students

By Dr Rachel Chin, Researcher Development Project Officer for the Flourish programme

I arrived in the UK from the USA in 2011 to undertake an MSc in The Theory and History of International Relations. But I did not just want to be a student in the UK. For many years I had thought about how much I would like to settle in the UK. However, the immigration landscape then, as now, was hugely challenging. I was fortunate enough to secure a position on a Doctoral project after my MSc. But over the next decade I applied for six separate student, postdoctoral and work visas. I spent countless hours stressing about where I would be the next year and how much money I should be saving should I have to ship my life back to the USA.

Being an international student or member of staff presents its own particular challenges when thinking about career progression. The aim of this blog post is not to propose an answer to these challenges, many of which lay far beyond the scope of our control. It is simply to acknowledge and to advertise the extent to which these challenges can influence how one approaches career development. 

Making time to reflect on our skills, abilities and achievements and to consider how we would like to deploy these in our career is an important exercise. However, external pressures can play a considerable role in this process. For international staff and students, student and work visas tunnel the ways in which we think about career development. Students are restricted to working a set number of hours during term time. For staff, sponsorship and salary requirements make it difficult to move between posts or employers. Work mobility schemes such as secondment opportunities are frequently difficult or impossible to access.

The legal, financial and administrative burdens of maintaining your legal status as an international student or staff member can be a source of mental stress that makes it impossible to even think about career development, let alone build towards the ideal next move. In my own experience, my fear of breaking my residency streak meant that I would have taken any job; who cared if it was the right job? As a result, I missed opportunities to engage with leadership courses in favour of becoming an expert in the UK 10-Year Long Residency requirements. I did not feel that I could really have a voice in my career decisions while my legal residence had an expiration date.

As members of a higher education institution that has a large and diverse community of international staff and students it is important that we take note of and acknowledge these challenges. This is especially the case as both the monitoring of migrants and the political and social discussions around migration in the UK increase in tenor.

In this environment, it is more important than ever to be aware of existing support for international staff and students. For instance, the University of Glasgow has a team of advisors that is dedicated to supporting international students. There is also information for prospective staff about the various visa and immigration routes that may be open to them. Some may benefit from the support and advice provided by the excellent legal team at Justright Scotland.

For me, curating a network of support, of friends and colleagues, was an important outlet to voice my concerns and worries. In particular, speaking with people who have gone through similar experiences has been an important reminder that my immigration status is mine alone, but many others have been in similar situations and experienced similar stresses and worries.

My perspective and experiences as a migrant to the UK have informed how I have approached my own career development. As I continue to grow and develop my knowledge as a researcher developer, one of my goals is to curate support for researchers that speaks to the wide range of challenges and opportunities that this diverse community can face.