Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the suitability of the IOE Confucius Institute as a provider of the Mandarin Excellence Programme in English schools.

The aim of the department’s Mandarin Excellence Programme (MEP) is to ensure that a high number of pupils in schools in England are on track to fluency in Mandarin, providing an increased pipeline of speakers to meet the future business and economic needs of the country.

In April 2021, the department considered tenders as part of a procurement for a new contract to run the MEP from September 2021 onwards. University College London’s Institute of Education (UCL IOE) Confucius Institute met the requirements of the department’s specifications and was awarded the contract in July as the successful bidder. UCL IOE delivers the MEP in partnership with the British Council.

UCL IOE has had a successful track record in delivering the MEP since its inception in 2016. The programme has grown from 14 schools in 2016 to 75 in 2022. There are currently over 7,800 pupils on the programme and over 8,000 pupils have benefitted from the programme since it began. In 2021, the first cohort sat their GCSEs in the language, with UCL reporting that 97% achieved at least Level 5 and 73% achieved either Level 8 or Level 9.

The department continues to monitor the provider and the programme closely through regular, on-going contract management.