If they are to survive, universities must maximise the opportunities and expand abroad, writes Jacqui Smith
The UK’s world-class education and skills offer overseas brings roughly the same to our economy as exporting cars and is worth more than food and drink.
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It brings in a whopping £32 billion per year, making it one of this country’s most valuable exports. But we’re setting sights higher, and backing our leading schools, colleges and universities to maximise the potential international markets offer.
In the International Education Strategy, launched today, we’ve set a bold new target for the UK’s education system to generate £40bn per year by 2030.
This amount isn’t a tweak to the system, it is a significant cog in the economic renewal promised by this government in our Plan for Change.
Just in education terms, that could theoretically be around £4,500 per pupil in England, and it could fund 800,000 teachers for a year.
More widely, it will drive local jobs and support communities by strengthening universities and technical education, helping meet the Prime Minister’s ambition for two-thirds of young people to be studying degrees or gold-standard apprenticeships by the age of 25.
How will we achieve this, you ask?
We’re strengthening how we identify opportunities and we’re creating tighter links overseas.
Most significantly, we’re removing the red tape and expanding expertise to make sure students who want to access the best the UK’s education system has to offer can do so from their own communities. I’m proud that our higher education system attracts so many from around the globe. But hosting international students is just one small part of the UK’s diverse international education offer.
UK universities now deliver degrees in 188 countries and territories worldwide. TNE exports reached £3 billion in 2022, a huge increase of nearly a third on the previous year.
It’s not just a significant boost for the economy, but universities themselves.
We inherited a university sector facing serious financial challenges. The Office for Students’ forecast was unnerving, predicting that fifty providers in England are at risk of exiting the market in the next couple of years.
We want to restore our world-class universities as engines of opportunity, aspiration, and growth. But we’ve long been firm that they need to build more sustainable business models.
If they are to survive, universities must maximise the opportunities and expand abroad. It means they can diversify income, strengthen global partnerships and give more students access to a UK education on their own doorsteps.
Expanding UK education abroad also creates a lasting legacy of our values and standards, and solidifies our position as a partner of choice for emerging markets.
I want millions more people around the world to experience the exceptional UK education system and to carry those values into leadership, business and public life.
Our institutions have educated 59 current world leaders, placing the UK second globally. It includes the likes of Mark Carney the Prime Minister of Canada and Naruhito, the Emperor of Japan, showing how education builds trust, shapes leadership and strengthens Britain’s global standing for generations.
By exporting education, the UK is not just teaching the world today, but securing prosperity for tomorrow.
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Baroness Smith is Minister for Skills and Minister for Women and Equalities.
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