Policy paper

Education Sector Advisory Group minutes 11 July 2023

Updated 11 January 2024

Time, date and venue: 11:00 to 12:30, 11 July 2023, Department for Business and Trade (DBT), Old Admiralty Building, London and MS Teams.

Attendees

• Lord Offord, Minister for Exports – Chair
• Prof. Sir Steve Smith, International Education Champion
• Maddalaine Ansell, Director of Education, British Council
• Caroline Wright, Chief Executive, British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA)
• Colin Bell, Chief Executive, Council of British International Schools (COBIS)
• Huan Japes, Membership Director (Deputising for Jodie Gray, Chair) English UK
• Alex Proudfoot, Chief Executive, Independent Higher Education (IHE)
• Jane Rexworthy, Chair, UK Skills Partnership – Via MS Teams
• Wendy Alexander – Scotland (Vice-Principal International at the University of Dundee and Scottish Trade Envoy).
• Prof. Jonathan Heggarty – Northern Ireland (Principal and CEO of Stranmillis University College, Belfast) – Via MS Teams
• Dr Ben Calvert – Wales (Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive, University of South Wales and Chair, Global Wales – Via MS Teams

Apologies

• Neil Leitch, Chief Executive, Early Years Alliance
• Jamie Arrowsmith, Director, Universities UK International (UUKi)

Welcome and introduction

The Minister introduced himself and thanked the sector for their role in working with the Government (HMG) to support education export growth, and emphasised HMG’s commitment to the International Education Strategy (IES); supporting education exports across the whole of the sector across, not just higher education (HE). He noted he was looking forward to working with the sector and using the group to understand how HMG can further help.

Members were asked to introduce themselves and raise a pressing issue for their respective sub-sectors.

British Council: Regulatory barriers are an ongoing issue. Transnational education (TNE) is becoming an increasingly important area for them; and for the International Education Strategy, in order for us to reach our ambitions – international students cannot all come to the UK. The British Council were very active at the Education World Forum (EWF) in May [world’s largest gathering of education ministers with 120 ministers attending and 114 countries represented]. British Council teams provided invaluable support to facilitate countries’ engagement, including during meetings with UK Ministers, and side events with delegations from the ASEAN region, Nigeria and the Gulf.

English UK (EUK): At its height, there were 600,000 English language students coming to the UK. The sector continues to recover; their annual statistics indicate a partial recovery in 2022 of 50% of the pre-pandemic student numbers. The recovery rate was however lower than for other tourism sector businesses and also the other main English-speaking destinations (for example, Ireland, Australia). Currently, 40 to 50% of students come from the EU, which causes issues now that the UK has left the block, including youth mobility; with Ireland taking advantage of the situation. EUK recently launched a policy paper to re-establish the UK as the world’s premier ELT destination, with nine asks of HMG including those related to visas and immigration, as well as marketing support from HMG, and the setting of a national growth target for ELT students. Home stay accommodation for students is currently an issue due to delays in DBS checks.

BESA: There has been a 50% drop in members looking internationally, with BESA undertaking research to look at the reasons why. Anecdotal conversations have flagged concerns with increased travel and exhibition costs of international events, exacerbated by the withdrawal of HMG grant support for UK exporters. The decision to roll back on geo-restricting the Oak National Academy to the UK and open up Oak’s entire library of HMG endorsed digital content free of charge around the world, is having damaging impact on UK EdTech and print curriculum publishers. Thanks was given for the support of DBT for UK providers receiving more streamlined and timely communications on export support.

Independent Higher Education (IHE): Members include professional bodies and pathway providers, and mostly SMEs. On quality of education export data, it was noted that short-stay students (on, for example, CPD and professional short courses) are not currently being captured by the economic (export revenue) data. There is no system for collecting and measuring the value of their contribution. If there were, we could have a target to grow this revenue. Also, short-stay (under 12 months) students are by definition not counted as migrants, and so do not contribute to the net migration figures. An IHE representative will join the British Council / UUKi mission to China in September, their first participation in such visits.

COBIS: There is an issue with teacher supply; also, in order to facilitate the movement of teachers between the domestic and international sectors, more consistent recognition of the benefits and merits of international experience is needed. A more centralised approach, with clear support from HMG and education bodies is needed. Teachers could move in both directions with greater confidence, leading to an increased pool of prospective teachers for senior leaders and recruiters. Recognition of service overseas is needed to ensure teachers with international experience are welcomed, encouraged, and supported to enter or return to the UK school’s sector.

UK Skills Partnership (UKSP): UKSP Chair has had discussions with Sir Steve Smith on making it easier for skills providers to export, across the whole range of providers - assessment, apprenticeships etc and via digital and green provision. There has been an 80% drop in international student numbers in further education colleges over the past five years which has reduced their financial capacity to undertake international work. There are just circa 20 colleges who proactively export in any significant way. There are big opportunities to match skill requirements globally with the UK offer. Markets that UKSP have identified are China, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, and the Caribbean. New strategic actions have been developed for UKSP delivery by the end of the financial year.

Scotland: Working well with the UK government; it was noted that Scotland is mentioned in the IES. The Scottish education brand is strong and compliments the UK one. An example of this was during Sir Steve Smith’s visit to Singapore where there was a Scottish side event. A decision on a Scottish IES was taken 2 years ago; no publication date as yet. Scotland are even more dependent on international students, and therefore markets like China.

Northern Ireland: Have been very successful in attracting international students.

Wales: Have seen an upturn in international student recruitment over the last few years, such that they have returned to 2010 levels. The sector generally accepts and will work within the context of new visa restrictions and feel comfortable that they have the capacity to manage. They continue to develop activity across priority markets including Vietnam, North America, India and Europe across recruitment, system to system capacity building, research partnerships, TNE, enterprise and skills. A new round of Ukraine funding for Welsh institutions has also been issued.

IES 2023 progress update and Statement of intent

It was noted that HMG should be looking at both diversify providers and provision, targeting innovative providers new to both exporting and new to market; particularly SMEs, some of which will be spin offs from larger companies. IHE had 7 providers on their recent launch pad. Also, an overseas provider has set up in the UK resulting from one of their launch pad schemes. BESA have a similar scheme.

It was felt that all attendees worked closely together on the recent legal immigration issue. It was highlighted that the ONS is currently underestimating the value of education exports, for example, pathway providers are not being captured, which would contribute another £490m.

Lord Offord summarised that the nature of the global challenge is around upskilling the existing work force; answering this need is TVET, not HE. We have the expertise, but we are not so good at packaging and selling it. The value of Level 4/5 skills qualifications as an alternative to an HE degree needs to be emphasised.

Attendees agreed that the process towards HE is straight forward; for skills, government is generally involved in a commissioning process. The nature of the need is not one solution, rather a package. We have the solutions, but are not so good at joining up to create these packages and selling the offer. It was noted that skills live in all sectors and HMG needs to be involved and bridge that gap. The group agreed that the Minister should have an education element in all his visits, particularly when conducting G2G meetings.

There was a suggestion for a heat map showing markets we have penetrated for each education subsector; showing where we are in priority countries and where less so. It was also emphasised schools are a pipeline to HE; English language is a prerequisite for studying. We need to look at how we can be better interconnected. EWF is a great opportunity - overseas ministers want to talk about education reform. This can be a pipeline for the UK offer.

Action 1: To include an agenda item on SMEs for the next ESAG meeting.

Action 2: Where appropriate, include education in Minister Offord’s visits going forward, especially during G2G Ministerial meetings with overseas counterparts.

International Education Champion Upcoming Engagements

Sir Steve updated the group on his most recent engagements (including engaging with 41 Ministers at EWF) and confirmed dates for his forthcoming oversees visits, which are:

• 18 to 22 Sept: India HE Mission
• 16 to 20 Oct: Vietnam and Thailand HE TNE Mission (Sir Steve will be just undertaking the Vietnam leg)
• 06 to 10 Nov: The first UK-led Nigeria HE TNE Mission (the Abuja leg, 6 to 7 Nov)
• 4 to 7 Dec: Saudi Arabia HE Mission (including Education Day at COP 28)
• Early February date to be confirmed: Pakistan HE TNE Mission
• 26 Feb to 2 Mar: Saudi Arabia to attend the Human Capability Initiative conference hosted by the Ministry of Education.

Any other business

The next meeting of the group will be on Tuesday 14 November, 11:00 to 12:30.