The long wait for a new International Education Strategy is over.
Widely scrutinised since its publication, there has been a mixed reception for the Strategy in the national and sector press, notably and unsurprisingly covering the ambition to grow the UK sector’s TNE coverage and provide more UK education overseas, in contrast to a numerical target for international student recruitment.
A lot of the reaction has tended towards the disappointed and the underwhelmed, which might be more to do with the length of time we have waited for it to be launched. Personally, the Strategy has brought out my inner Pollyanna.
In these times, it’s become common practice to explore where the deficits or the challenges lie – and there are some definite gaps, but it is important that we do not overlook the positives in this strategy.
A welcome commitment
I note that hardly any media coverage has led with the Strategy’s continued commitment to welcome international students to the UK. While it doesn’t set a numerical target, it does restate a commitment to international student experience, and even cites key elements such as infrastructure and housing.
Considering that the previous strategy contained zero reference to the international student experience when first launched in 2019, this welcome retention should be what the sector and the press are widely communicating to current and prospective international students.
We should also be celebrating the multiple references to the work of the British Council and Study UK – albeit with no mention of funding. The Council’s international network and the Study UK campaign are unique promoters of the UK sector around the world, and it’s significant that this Strategy takes several opportunities to reinforce this.
Let’s hope that this Strategy leads to increased investment in Study UK as a result, if government is serious about ramping up its global impact and supporting the UK’s ambitions for recruitment in the UK and overseas.
The IES reiterates a commitment to women and girls’ education, which has been a long-standing objective of successive governments. Of course, if government wants to ensure this objective is met, it’s essential that an impact assessment is carried out on recent changes to immigration policy – something we have called for consistently at UKCISA – to identify where it discriminates against women students who would benefit from studying in the UK.
Let’s hope that the new Education Sector Action Group (ESAG) will advocate strongly for this and other missing impact assessments required for the last few years of policy changes.
Mobility matters
As a long-standing advocate for student mobility – and former first-in-family, full-grant-recipient Erasmus beneficiary – I was delighted to see mobility get a profile in the Strategy, albeit focused on outward mobility and less on the importance of reciprocal mobility for the UK’s ambitions in international partnerships.
Conversely, I was disappointed that there was not a single reference to the success of the Taith programme in Wales. This seemed a wasted opportunity to profile a significant – and Labour-funded – success story.
Sector collaboration
UKCISA has had many opportunities to feed into the development of the Strategy, and advise government on the importance of the international student experience, so the second objective to sustainably recruit international students from a diverse range of countries is welcome, not least because it’s what our members are already working hard to do.
Our recent #WeAreInternational Awards showcased the depth and breadth of work across the sector to provide the best possible student experience and the work already under way to ensure that this objective is being met, and we are discussing with DfE and DBT how the award-winners can help exemplify the strategy’s commitments to the international student experience.
Our members include staff working in admissions, advice, and sponsor compliance in over 180 universities, including an active immigration compliance expert practitioner network. Staff engagement with our essential training in immigration and our invaluable information, advice, and guidance on immigration rules, guidance, and how these translate to practice demonstrates their commitment to the provision of a high-quality student experience across all aspects of student engagement.
Student voice
Significantly, the spirit of our #WeAreInternational Student Charter and its principles strongly feature in this part of the Strategy – a testament to the importance of the student voice in influencing policy that has an impact on them, and the influential role that UKCISA will play in the delivery of the Strategy in the long-term.
I was delighted to see one of our first #WeAreInternational Student Ambassadors, Nebu George, share his story of being a student in the UK. Nebu’s contribution matters not because it is a feel-good case study, but because it reflects how student insight can and should shape policy.
Through our work with students, we do not simply support them – we help ensure their lived experience is heard in the rooms where decisions are made, and reflected in the strategies that follow.
What’s missing
While there is much to celebrate in this Strategy, as an overall document, it is arguably too heavy on background, context, and the UK’s achievements to date and far too light on measurable objectives and a plan for supporting the sector to achieve them.
Delegating the action plan to the Education Sector Action Group (ESAG) means that the sector is waiting a while longer to find out how this will be achieved and how success will be evaluated.
Then there is the bizarre positioning of the international student tuition fee levy as part of a competitive offer. No student choosing the UK is going to be drawn in by a technical consultation on the levy, or the promise that their fee is going to be reinvested into grants for domestic students.
Mentioning the levy in the strategy at all feels at best like an editing oversight, and at worst, like an ill-thought-out marketing campaign. This needs to be a priority issue for ESAG to look at, mitigating the risk of this in communications to students considering a UK education.
Perhaps the most important gap is information on how ESAG – the group that holds so much responsibility for the delivery of the Strategy’s objectives – will be formed.
I trust that government will recognise that UKCISA representation on the ESAG is critical to any action plan to deliver a high-quality student experience and build an engaged alumni community, and we look forward to working with them and colleagues across the sector to help deliver on these ambitions.