On Monday, July 29th the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) released its International Education Strategy. This strategy outlines how the UK will work with businesses, schools and universities to develop the economic opportunities of the growing education sector.
Strategy highlights include:
- Welcoming international students: the strategy explains that there is no cap on the number of international students who can come to the UK, and support for students when things go wrong in their home country
- Supporting British schools and colleges operating overseas, developing ‘end-to-end’ English language training, and strengthening quality assurance
- Launching a design call, through the Technology Strategy Board, on commercialising education technology (keep watch for this!). This could include development of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), like those offered by coursera and edX
- Expanding the number of Chevening scholarships for study in the UK, especially for developing nations
- A new ‘Education is GREAT Britain’ campaign!
The International Education Strategy is the most recent installment in a series of industrial strategies covering agriculture, automotive, construction, aerospace and other key sectors as part of the UK Government’s wider Industrial Strategy.
The Business Secretary Vince Cable set out the government’s approach to industrial strategy in September 2012 to address barriers faced by industry.
According to the above infographic put out by BIS, UK Education exports were worth £17.5 billion in 2011 and is projected to grow by 7% each year over the next 5 years.Higher education is increasingly being noticed as a lucrative and growing business sector, especially where attracting international students is concerned. Watch this space for some guest blogs from UK higher education leaders for their perspective on the challenges and opportunities in the education sector presented by developing nations and technologies.