Over the weekend, HEPI published a blog on fraud risk within universities and a two-part series (Sunday and Monday) on the LLE. Find the first here and the second here.
This blog was kindly authored by Rod Smith, Group Managing Director for International Education at Cambridge University Press & Assessment.
International education is changing, as is the UK’s education sector’s global potential. The International Education Strategy has recognised that.
The shift in emphasis from inbound international student recruitment to broader forms of education exports is smart. It may also ultimately strengthen UK universities and their internationalism over the long term.
To date, the UK’s international education strategy has primarily skewed towards international student recruitment. That’s why it’s so refreshing to see more attention on other parts of the sector. But this is not either / or: the broader focus can benefit higher education.
The UK has an enormous opportunity to scale-up its impact in international education. The new strategy better captures the full extent of the UK’s capability in international education: from early years to lifelong learning. We can use that ability to strengthen our higher education sector, our economy, and our place in the world.
Global investment in education is growing – from $5.9 trillion in 2018 to an estimated $10 trillion by 2030. The new £40 billion target for UK education exports is reasonable and, if anything, modest. We should be fighting for a larger slice.
New campuses and new delivery models for higher education will form an important part, but it’s about so much more than that.
When I talk to education ministers, officials, school leaders and, most importantly, parents and students outside the UK, it’s startlingly clear that there is an enormous unmet appetite for quality international education. Not simply ‘British’ international education, but something that can adapt to a local context, that we can evolve in partnership to meet local needs and draw on local expertise. I hear this – and a desire for what the UK offers – in hugely diverse regions, whether it’s Bhubaneswar or Mumbai; Vilnius or Madrid; Cape Town or Lagos. The demand for future-facing education, adapting to changing needs in sustainability and climate change, critical thinking or wellbeing is what our sectors do best.
This will often lead to local, regional or hybrid in-country and in-UK delivery at all levels. The new strategy is rightly sensitive to these evolving needs.
The UK is particularly well-placed to help meet this demand. Our expertise in international curriculum, teaching and learning materials, assessment, world-recognised assessment, and publishing is unparalleled. As EdTech and AI mature, the UK can play a pivotal role in making them work for hundreds of millions of learners of all ages, well before they get to higher education.
To do so, we must start early. We need a fully integrated International Education Strategy – one that covers every age and stage of a child’s education journey. We need not wait until young people reach an age when they are applying to university.
We can – and in many parts of the world, we already do – provide the curriculum expertise and standards that enable local partners to meet their ambition. Meeting such global standards early puts students on a pathway that leads to recognition by universities and employers worldwide. It also equips them for a rapidly changing world, so they are ready to grapple with climate change and a green economy, and have the fundamental skills and knowledge to manage and lead technological transformations.
As we look at the UK’s whole approach to international education, we can be more ambitious. We should think about how the UK’s unique capability can serve and influence students long before they are even considering university.
How can we better help create an incredible pipeline of young people who will always retain a connection to the UK, whether they ever study or work here or not? How can we become better known as partners, collaborators and innovators at a time of global growth in education demand and investment?
Sir Steve Smith and his team have provided the vision. It’s up to all of us working in international education to help realise it..