The globalized nature of higher education presents unique challenges and opportunities for academic and research organizations navigating the complexities of international staffing and remote work. Universities are increasingly focused on managing the growing risks of staff working internationally. From academics on fellowships or sabbaticals, internal researchers, remote campuses, online tutor support, and examiners based overseas, to the growing trend of remote working, the diverse types of international working arrangements are proving challenging for many universities. To help manage the associated risks, not just from a cost and compliance perspective but also to their brand and operational success, several universities in the UK have recently created new in-house global mobility roles and functions. The task of introducing effective policies and processes to manage the international working arrangements within their university can feel overwhelming. Traditional approaches often struggle to keep pace with the regulatory environment and dynamic needs of institutions and their globally mobile workforce.
One Russell Group university, with a large number of international academics, faced significant challenges in managing the various risks associated with their staff’s international working arrangements. These challenges ranged from tracking where and when their academics were working internationally, to implementing a standard policy and approval process, and addressing downstream compliance issues. In respect to the latter alone, the university budgeted a seven-figure sum to “get it right.” Vialto has been working alongside the newly formed global mobility team at the university to help them build a future-ready framework.
The Vialto Perspective:
Tailored, end-to-end mobility solutions driven by proven sector expertise
Recognizing and empathizing with these challenges, our dedicated team of Higher Education (HE) sector specialists has been supporting the university in developing internal processes to achieve effective and comprehensive management of international working arrangements.
Technical expertise and guidance: Our specialists analyzed complex technical areas unique to the sector, such as the availability of the teachers’ articles in a Double Taxation Treaty (DTT), the complexity of having academia working at CERN, and mobility consequences for academics based overseas as part of a fellowship arrangement. We provided advice on both the technical position and how to practically triage and manage these arrangements.This has included developing HE-specific stop/go guides, flowcharts enabling in-house teams to perform initial assessments, and agreements with tax authorities to streamline processes, such as registering for payroll in the absence of a certificate of incorporation. Vialto works closely with the university to triage individual cases by assessing each academic’s situation against relevant regulations and providing tailored checklists designed to ensure both historical and forward-looking compliance.
Custom technology implementation: In collaboration with the university, we built a comprehensive, custom technology solution to transform how they manage and triage their international working cases, including historic requests. We further implemented customized modules of Vialto’s global mobility technology tools, such as myMobility and myRemoteWork, tailored to the specific needs of the university’s international workforce. We developed a bespoke filter integrated into our myRemoteWorker tool, enabling seamless data flow between myMobility and the tool. The modifications provided a one-point access data collection system for all international work activities. By linking this data output with the myMobility tool, we enabled a highly efficient and secure way to manage the data and requirements related to their academics with overseas engagements.
Knowledge-sharing and networking: Vialto HE specialists provide informal buddying, and formal networking and knowledge-sharing opportunities to the university, such as the bi-annual HE global mobility roundtables, periodic newsletters, and tailored webinars. The goal is to support HR and mobility teams working in-house with practical, helpful information, offering both technical and non-technical support tailored for the HE sector.
The Vialto Difference:
Seamless academic mobility with industry-recognized results
We helped the client develop a bespoke triage process that specifically meets their needs and work alongside other processes already in place at the university.
The custom integration between our myRemoteWorker and myMobility tools together with the specific funnel we developed to work as part of myRemoteWorker allows the technology to mirror the university’s unique organizational structure. It sets the foundation for proactive management of all future cases, and by the end of the first year, the system is expected to triage up to 100 plus cases, providing substantial operational efficiency gains. We also used technology to improve the efficiency of triaging historic cases. Initially piloted in two key departments, this has successfully reviewed 50 cases, laying the groundwork for an upcoming university-wide roll-out.
Our ongoing support helped the client make informed decisions on new international working requests using our stop/go analysis model. Over the past year, 20 cases have already undergone this review, providing strategic alignment with their global employment framework. One of the key outcomes of our collaboration was guiding the client through registering for shadow payroll operations in multiple regions. With our support, they successfully established payroll in Belgium, Germany, and Spain, and are preparing to do the same in 10 additional countries. This marks a significant step in their global compliance strategy. Furthermore, we provided comprehensive relocation briefings to senior university executives, facilitating smooth transition to the United Kingdom and enabling strategic and time-critical leadership movements.
We assisted the university with more complex projects, such as facilitating a major move to Singapore and advising on a joint venture with an Australian university, working closely with our team in Australia. This cross-border collaboration has assisted in streamlining their global operations and fostered new opportunities for growth.
This university had many academics based at CERN (The European Organization for Nuclear Research), in Switzerland. Vialto engaged with Swiss authorities to gain their perspective on complex CERN scenarios, resulting in agreed-upon exceptions and valuable guidance for the university and the larger sector. In conjunction to this, we developed practical resources including a flowchart for initial in-house triage of CERN cases, providing a valuable resource which is also a first in terms of support material available to manage these challenges.
A notable outcome of our efforts supporting the UK Higher Education sector as a whole is the Nigel Clothier Award, which we received for special contribution to university tax by BUFDG (British Universities Finance Directors Group). This accolade highlights the success of the Vialto HE team in supporting the sector and ensuring universities are prepared for the future. Around 50 UK HE institutions now use Vialto’s myMobility tool, and several are also utilizing other elements of our Vialto global mobility technology. We also built relationships with organizations such as Velocity Global, an Employer of Record (EoR) provider, to support the sector more widely in managing their international working populations.
Building on Vialto’s success in the United Kingdom, regional teams across our network have established Higher Education specialist teams to provide tailored solutions and cohesive support to universities, leveraging both global and regional expertise.
Learn more about related solutions:
myMobility
myRemoteWork
Contacts
Marie Green
Higher Education Sector Leader, EMEA
marie.green@vialto.com
Robert Cinberg
Higher Education Sector Leader, US
robert.h.cinberg@vialto.com
Selina Keller
Higher Education Sector Leader, Australasia
selina.keller@vialtopartners.com
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