The UK’s national international education strategy was produced by the Department for Business and Trade, in partnership with the Department for Education in 2019, and is now set for a refresh.
The current strategy has faced criticism for being too focused on export targets, and the strategy is now due to be re-written in response to the Labour government policy papers on immigration, trade and industry.
Speaking at the International Higher Education Forum, Sir Steve Smith, the UK’s international education champion revealed that the new IES is being co-authored by the FCDO as new stakeholders, in a bid to improve policy cohesion across departments.
“As you know, we’re currently reviewing the international education strategy to ensure that it represents the evolution of international education in the last five years and to align it with the state of the priority,” Smith told stakeholders at the IHEF event.
“We’ve been exploring the structure of governance and strategic direction of the strategy and we’re working to ensure we align with other government policies on key areas such as sustainable international student recruitment and TNE.
“Now the FCDO have been brought on board as a joint owner of the international education strategy. This is a really significant development and offers an exciting opportunity for us to leverage the soft power benefits of international education, as well for fully utilised the UK government’s network overseas.”
Soft power is seen as one of the UK’s most enduring and valuable assets, with 58 current and recent world leaders educated through the British system.
The FCDO is the UK government’s department supporting foreign policy, development work, and consular services overseas, including grant-in-aid funding for the British Council.
However recent reports in The Guardian have suggested that the British Council ‘may have to close in 60 countries’ amid cuts to aid budget in the government’s spending review.
Catriona Laing, SRO for the Soft Power Hub as part of the FCDO, spoke about the central importance of excellent universities to UK soft power.
“The UK still ranks number three in the world for soft power impact, behind the US and China, but watch this space,” she said.
“Education is one of the dimensions we measure in soft power and the UK is globally recognised for the quality of its education system. By attracting students to the UK, we build global relationships, we promote our values and culture and we encourage people to advocate for us.”
Laing explained that the government will be publishing both a trade strategy and an industrial strategy, both released after the spending review.
“It is important to note that education, as we’ve heard, is absolutely central to our industrial strategy,” she said.
The new international education strategy is due for publication in the coming months.
