Overseas experience increasingly important to global businesses.
UK graduates could become more competitive in the international jobs market if more of them studied abroad as part of their degree, a new report has claimed.
The study from the Council for Industry and Higher Education (CIHE) states that global awareness is becoming increasingly important to recruiters with multi-national firms, the Guardian reported.
Graduates who have studied overseas are perceived as being more culturally aware, better equipped to work in multi-cultural teams and more open to moving around the world for work.
The CIHE is therefore calling for more support from academic institutions and funding bodies for programmes that give students the chance to live and work overseas, such as exchanges with foreign universities.
It is also urging the government to amend visa and work permit regulations to make the UK the "preferred worldwide location" for both international students and companies that recruit globally.
CIHE chief executive Richard Brown said: "Businesses consider that the UK develops some of the best graduates in the world. But our home-grown ones need to get that wider global perspective."
Founded in 1986, the CIHE conducts research and lobbies for change to address the education issues affecting the UK's competitiveness.
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