Policy paper

Education Sector Advisory Group minutes 27 March 2024

Updated 31 May 2024

This was published under the 2019 to 2022 Johnson Conservative government

Time, date, and venue

10:30 to 12:00, 27 March 2024, Department for Business and Trade, Old Admiralty Building, London, and MS Teams.

Attendees

• Lord Offord, Minister for Exports – Chair
• Damian Hinds, Minister for Schools (guest)
• Prof. Sir Steve Smith, International Education Champion
• Julia Garvey, Deputy Director General, British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA)
• Colin Bell, Chief Executive, Council of British International Schools (COBIS)
• Lord Jim Knight, Chair, Council of British International Schools (COBIS)
• Huan Japes, Membership Director, English UK
• Alex Proudfoot, Chief Executive, Independent Higher Education (IHE)
• Neil Leitch, Chief Executive, Early Years Alliance
• Jane Rexworthy, Chair, UK Skills Partnership
• Maddalaine Ansell, Director of Education, British Council
• Jamie Arrowsmith, Director, Universities UK International (UUKi)
• Martin Bull, Head of Development, National Association for Special Educational Needs (NASEN)
• Dan Conway, CEO, Publishers Association

Apologies

• Wendy Alexander – Scotland (Vice-Principal International at the University of Dundee and Scottish Trade Envoy)
• Dr Ben Calvert – Wales (Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive, University of South Wales and Chair, Global Wales.
• Prof. Jonathan Heggarty – Northern Ireland (Principal and CEO of Stranmillis University College, Belfast)

Welcome and opening remarks

The chair mentioned that co-chair, Minister Halfon, has resigned as Department for Education (DfE) Skills Minister, and commented on his strong legacy, for example, driving the government’s skills agenda and commitment to widening participation. Luke Hall is the new Minister of State at DfE and we are waiting for formal confirmation from No10 on next steps regarding his portfolio and responsibilities, as well as the process for deciding on a DfE co-chair for this group.

In February, Education Sector Advisory Group (ESAG) members and officials held the first small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) Education Exports Working Group meeting, to take forward ideas from recent ESAG discussions on developing plans, proposals and programmes of activity. The ultimate aim is to transform the support that government and the sector offers to education small- and medium-sized enterprise (SMEs) to help drive more export activity. The group will continue to meet every 1-2 months.

Education export data for 2021 was published on GOV.UK on 21 March 2024. The total UK revenue from education related exports and transnational education (TNE) activity is estimated to be £27.90bn, an increase of 6.23% since 2020.

Student recruitment

Jamie Arrowsmith, UUKi, provided insight into the current position of the international student recruitment landscape for UK universities following recent changes to student immigration and visa policy.

Since the launch of the International Education Strategy (IES) in 2019, there has been substantial growth in international student numbers, such that we have reached the IES ambition for the last 2 years of available data; the latest being 679,970 (2021/22) - a 12% increase from 2020/21. The next available data will be released in April 2024.

Revenue from these students, as indicated in the recent data release, now makes up nearly 78% of all education exports.

A growing body of evidence is now emerging which shows that we are seeing a contraction in the number of international students choosing the UK as reflected in recent data.

Latest migration figures show that 457,673 sponsored study visas were granted in the year ending December 2023, 5.5% down on the previous year. It is notable that the overall number of visas fell over the year despite strong performance in Q2. Estimated hit to the UK economy (based on analysis by UUK) could be £1.2bn.

Demand from Indian and Nigerian students is particularly affected – the number of visas granted to nationals from the former, over the previous year, are down 13.7%, and the latter, down 28.2%.

While the level of net migration remains high, universities are concerned that further immigration measures – particularly related to the Graduate visa – risk more potential international students turning to our competitors, with serious implications for both the financial health of the sector and the significant contribution these students and graduates make to the UK economy.

There is negative media, such as in India on the UK post study offer.

Things we can do to address negative impressions include a coordinated UK government message on the commitment to recruitment and post study work and increase UK marketing spend/further collaboration between the sector and the Study UK/GREAT campaigns.

International Education Champion update

Sir Steve Smith welcomed the news of the 6% increase in education exports, and then spoke about his recent and future activities:

Leading 2 missions to Saudi Arabia:

• a delegation of UK higher education (HE) institutions (December)

Saudi Arabia urges UK to intensify research and development collaboration, saying we are doing well, but that there is a 2 to 3-year window of opportunity for doing more before Saudi priorities and direction are set. Relatively modest UK government investment could unlock significant Saudi funding for partnerships. 50 partnerships have resulted from the visit.

• a delegation of providers across K-12 schools, early years, and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) (February)

One new school confirmed a partnership, which will contribute to the critical Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) taskforce commitment of setting up 5 new UK schools in Saudi by 2025. Giga-project Diriyah announced that 8 UK schools will progress to the next phase of their procurement process, putting the UK on track to be the largest national representation at the site.

Met with Education Minister Al-Benyan to launch the United Kingdom-Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (UK-KSA) Education Taskforce. Since this visit, there has been significant momentum on UK-KSA education plans.

Other activities

• BETT UK (British Educational Training and Technology UK), where the programme of activities included meetings with delegations from Tier 2 priority countries of Mexico, Brazil, Pakistan, and with Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Minister for Universities, Research and Innovation along with UK Minister for Schools, Damian Hinds, where they reiterated the commitment to expanding partnerships into other education sub-sectors, focusing on EdTech and curriculum development

• meeting with Graham Stuart, Minister for Energy Security and Net Zero for a discussion on Gulf relations and the Sustainability Energy Institute in Saudi Arabia

• attended the launch of Scotland’s International Education Strategy including a meeting with the Scottish Higher and Further Education Minister, Graeme Dey

• a meeting with Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) Minister, Andrew Mitchell, to discuss issues around the global education part of his portfolio and mutual interests between the departments

• country planning meetings between British Council, FCDO, Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and DfE for all Tier 1 priority countries, to aid strategic decision making and join up, have now been completed

• Sir Steve then outlined his proposed programme of overseas visits for the forthcoming 12 months

Lord Offord thanked Sir Steve for his work as the champion.

Early years

Neil Leitch, Early Years Alliance, gave a presentation on the Early Years (EY) sector.

EY is everyone’s business. Countries often don’t see EY as the beginning of education, that is the K in K-12, which can be used as a strong brand narrative, for example, as was done for the recent Saudi mission. Early Years Foundation Stage is recognised as an effective child-centred EY curriculum, providing a brand that can be promoted to target countries.

The sector is currently almost exclusively focused on the challenges of the domestic market in delivering the parent entitlements commencing in April 2024.

It was noted that most UK providers are controlled externally to the UK, mostly in the US.

Schools

Colin Bell, COBIS, gave a presentation on the schools sector.

UK school international activity has greatly expanded over the last 10 years, with the number of UK international schools rising from 8,944 to 13,614, with a 54% increase in the number of students from 4.4m to 6.7m.

62,000 non-British pupils are at Independent Schools Council (ISC) schools – 36,000 with parents in UK, and 26,000 with parents overseas (boarding and day schools). Revenue for 2022 was about £2.1bn.

Growth segment included bilingual schools, now at 36%, and online schooling, particularly where campuses are not possible, and in relation to SEND.

The role of schools as a pipeline to UK universities was highlighted.

Concerns and challenges include visas, potential VAT increases, teacher supply, safeguarding, home fee status for UK HE and promoting and recognising established quality assurance. The inclusion of schools in the GREAT campaign and Study UK would be welcomed.

A slide was shown on the number and percentage of international schools in International Education Strategy (IES) Tier 1 & 2 priority countries, with only Latin America showing a small percentage.

In addition to schools accredited against the British Schools Overseas (BSO) and National Association of British Schools in Spain (NABSS) inspection standards, 200 schools have completed the COBIS Accreditation and Compliance quality assurance scheme.

Minister Hinds thanked the group for the invitation to join the meeting and spoke about the importance of the education sector internationally, both economically and as soft power, of the progress of the IES since he co-signed it in 2019, including international qualified teacher status (iQTS), the Early Years Foundation Stage and the sheer inventiveness of our EdTech sector, and the importance of the recent BETT show, and the forthcoming Education Word Forum (EWF).

Outward facing document

Jane Rexworthy, UK Skills Partnership, gave a presentation on the work she is leading on behalf of ESAG.

The UK should be a partner of choice. This will be delivered through an ‘outward facing document’ to be titled ‘Unlocking Global Potential: The UK Education and Skills International Offer’, which will promote the UK’s entire education landscape though the key offers from each of the subsectors.

The document’s purpose is to upskill colleagues overseas, for officials, ministers, Sir Steve Smith, and trade envoys to use in overseas engagements, and for overseas stakeholders and potential ‘buyers’, to ‘sell’ the UK offer.   

There is also a section on accessing expertise and support with links and contact information.

A final draft will be shared with ESAG members to fact check for their respective sections.

Action 1: Jane to circulate the draft ‘outward facing document’ for review by 10 April 2024.

(The document has been prepared and was published at EWF.)

Any other business

The freedom of speech and human rights related announcement (raised by Alex Proudfoot, IHE), is of concern and challenges what ESAG members are doing with education to aid transformation. DfE are looking into this.

Members were thanked for feeding into DBT-led discussion sessions related to DBT’s role and support following the Department for International Trade (DIT) and Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) merger. Ideas and suggestions have been very helpful and will shape departmental priorities to support the sector.

Action 2: If any members would like a follow up discussion on DBT’s role and support post the DIT-BEIS merger, or who weren’t able to join the 2 sessions, please get in touch with Tony Sims or Krishna Joshi.

The next meeting will be on 9 July 2024 (11.00am to 12.30pm). (This has since been postponed with a new date to be arranged.)