With the current rate of international migration - for educational purposes - to urban cities in the UK (Cangiano, 2010, HESA, 2011), it is critical for higher educational institutions to maintain awareness of the level of integration between ‘local’ and ‘international’ students. Continuing to increase the numbers of students from outside the UK without taking account of qualitative intelligence about their academic experiences together with the experiences of ‘local’ students is at best unwise and at worst foolish and likely to lead to a decrease in the number of applications from such students. The  UK Equality Challenge Unit’s (ECU) study Internationalising Equality, Equalising Internationalisation focused on the intersection between the equality and diversity agenda in the higher education sector, identifying opportunities for synergy between broader equality and diversity agendas and internationalisation, particularly in learning and teaching practices (Eade and Peacock, 2009).  The study cites the importance of Internationalisationat Home that has at its heart the commitment to ensure that local communities – of academics and students – benefit from the opportunities brought about by greater diversity in higher education.  While there is a growing corpus of research that focuses on the experiences of ‘international students’ in higher education, and of that which explores the experiences of ‘local’ students in learning environments that are increasingly diverse, there is very little that investigates the extent to which the background of local students affects their propensity to interact with students from other contexts. A study by  Harrison &  Peacock (In press) exploring the intersection between race, class and culture suggests that students from lower socioeconomic groups experience particular anxiety from interacting across cultures, which works to counter the positive benefits anticipated through the internationalisation at home agenda.  There is, therefore, a potential challenge to overcome in those classrooms where both the numbers of students from Widening Participation (WP) backgrounds (identified in the UK as being from an ethnic minority, having a disability, or being in a lower socioeconomic group) and of international students are rising. 

CANGIANO, A. (2010) UK Data Sources on International Migration and the Migrant Population: A Review and Appraisal. London, ESRC Centre on Migration Policy and Society (COMPAS). EADE, K. & PEACOCK, N. (2009) Internationalising Equality, Equalising Internationalisation: The intersection between internationalisation and equality and diversity in higher education:scoping report. Jan 15th, 2011 ed., Equality Challenge Unit (ECU). HARRISON, N. & PEACOCK, N. (In press) Cultural distance, mindfulness and passive xenophobia: using Integrated Threat Theory to explore home highereducation students' perspectives on 'internationalisation at home. British Educational Research Journal. HESA (2011) Higher Education Students Enrollments and Qualifications Obtained at Higher Education Institutions in the United Kingdom for the Academic Year 2009/10. 13 January 2011 ed., Higher Education Statist