Building on the success of the “We are International” campaign led by the University of Sheffield last year, British Council Education UK, Universities UK, and NUS have teamed up to launch a national social media campaign to celebrate international students, giving them a platform to share their stories and experience of studying in the UK.
The campaign will be active on our social media platforms throughout the month of March using #WeAreInternational. The aim is to generate activity and conversation via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media platforms in order to draw attention to some of the incredible student stories coming out of our English Language centres, schools, colleges and universities. The faces of this campaign will be the international students themselves. This will be their platform and we want them to use it.
We already know about the extraordinary contribution that international students make to the UK (see the key campaign facts in the document attached), but we want to share that story with the wider public, as well as highlight the skills and experience students gain through their studies which benefits the UK – or which they take back home to benefit their country of origin. We are asking you to join us so that we can make this campaign a success together. In participating you will also benefit your institution by helping to generate and share international student success stories overseas via Education UK’s global social media networks and website (which receives over 2million visits a year).
The campaign will kick off on Monday 2 March. You can get involved by…
Spread the word! Now is a good time to start spreading the word about the campaign to colleagues in your institution as well as your students (both home and international) and your international alumni. Encourage your students and alumni to tag their UK institution in their social media posts and we’ll share/retweet their stories through our networks. Student stories that generate a high amount of social media engagement will be contacted by Education UK to turn their story into a full article for our website and will feature their UK institution.
Share your story! Throughout the campaign we will be encouraging international students and alumni to share their student experience stories via social media using the attached campaign questions document as prompts. Once the campaign has been launched you will be able to find the full list on the Education UK website, but until then please feel free to share the campaign and attached document with your networks.
Snap it! Instagram and Twitter will help students share their story in a visual way. Encourage your students to participate by;
- Taking a photo with their international friends
- Uploading to Instagram/Twitter, tag @educationuk and include #WeAreInternational
- Tagging their UK institution in the photo (if possible)
- Tagging a friend to nominate them to upload their #WeAreInternational selfie
We also want to encourage students and alumni to post a short 15 second video answering the questions and demonstrating why they came to study in the UK.
Contact details: If you have any questions or would like to discuss further how you can get involved, please contact Roisin McLoughlin, Digital Communications & Social Media Manager at Education UK: roisin.mcloughlin@britishcouncil.org / 02073894865 Please feel free to forward the details in this note so that everyone’s ready for when the campaign begins on Monday 2 March.