Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the report by the British Council The Shape of Global Higher Education, published on 1 May, what steps they are taking to ensure that the UK retains its pre-eminence in global higher education, particularly in the light of the increasing access to education systems in other countries for overseas students.

In March 2019, the Department for Education and the Department for International Trade published the International Education Strategy, which can be found here and is also attached: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-education-strategy-global-potential-global-growth/international-education-strategy-global-potential-global-growth.

Developed in co-operation with providers across the education sector, this strategy sets out an ambition to increase the value of our education exports to £35 billion per year, and to increase the number of international higher education students in the UK to 600,000 per year, both by 2030.

The strategy also sets out actions to support the higher education sector to deliver on this ambition. These include the appointment of an international education champion to help build links with priority countries and unlock barriers to international exchange and partnership. In addition, the strategy sets out actions to ensure that international students have the best possible experience studying in the UK, and that doing this maximises their employment opportunities.

The government will be working closely with institutions, Universities UK International and the British Council to develop partnerships, deliver trade missions, to provide forums to develop sustainable mutually beneficial transnational education programmes and to develop annual updates to the strategy.