This article explores the importance of higher education to international women's organisations such as the International Federation of University Women, the International Council of Women, the International Alliance of Women and Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and asks how studying abroad contributed to the international cooperation and understanding promoted by these organisations in the interwar period. In particular, it assesses how the movement of "Eastern" women, especially East Asian, to the West for educational purposes at the beginning of the twentieth century benefited the expansion of these organisations beyond Europe, North America and white settler countries such as Australia and New Zealand between the world wars, and to what extent the experiences of international students in the "West" influenced their political activities back home and their involvement in international women's organisations.