“This agreement ensures that qualifications earned in one country are properly recognised in the other,” says British Council Director of Higher Education for the Americas, John Bramwell. “At the moment if a Mexican student studies a degree in a UK university that qualification is not recognised back in Mexico – and similarly if a UK student studies in Mexico they can’t then use their qualification here when they get back.”The agreement, signed by the two governments on the 2nd March 2015, means that UK and Mexican students can be confident that their studies will be recongnised in their home countries.According to the British Council there are an estimated 150,000 students who currently are unable to use their academic qualifications in their home country. After last week’s agreement this is no longer the case and Mr Bramwell says that we should expect increased numbers of students to come to the UK and for greater outbound student mobility to Mexico.“Universities will now be able to establish wider ‘Trans National’ Education agreements, new scholarship and mobility schemes and new research transfer agreements,” continues Mr Bramwell.Following the agreement with Mexico, the first of the Latin American countries to secure its agreement with the UK, it is expected that similar agreements will be put in place with other key countries – such as Chile and Brazil.“We look forward to getting all the Latin American countries into the same position,” concludes Mr Bramwell, “and indeed other key countries around the world. The UK university sector can then work with a consistent, quality assured confidence in student mobility… and engage the UK internationally on an unprecedented scale.”