Students are hoping to capitalise on a global network of 18 universities to improve services.
Glasgow University's students' representative council this week hosted an inaugural meeting of 13 student representatives from research universities involved in the Universitas 21 network.
Conference organiser Andre Almeida, president of Glasgow's SRC, said student exchanges were fundamental. "Without us, Universitas 21 is bones without the flesh. Students are very much the point of universities in the first place. A student from Glasgow who goes to Melbourne should get as good a service from the student body as from the university."