Responding to the launch of the Government’s new International Education Strategy, Mark Hilton, Policy Delivery Director at BusinessLDN, said:
“It’s good to see the Government getting behind our world-leading higher education sector with a new growth-focused strategy and £40bn export target. Expanding international education exports – in the form of overseas campuses – marks a huge opportunity for institutions across the UK which are playing a fundamental role in the Government’s growth mission.
“At the same time, there needs to be equal focus on the importance of maintaining and growing a sustainable pipeline of international students who want to come to the UK to study at university or an English language school. This delivers many benefits, including boosting local economies and job creation.
“Two things are vital to maintaining the UK as the premier global international education destination: firstly, that policy helps not hinders. This means ensuring the Graduate Visa remains in place and keeping the imposition of the new higher education levy under close review to ensure it doesn’t harm the global competitiveness of UK institutions on the world stage.
“And secondly, ensuring the UK projects a huge welcome to international students as the place to study and remains open to the best global talent which, alongside ambitious domestic upskilling programmes, is central to the success of high growth firms.”