BRITISH EDUCATION, A GLOBAL VISION
It is a privilege to – once again – write the foreword for, this, the fourth edition, of Great British Education. UK education is seen as the gold standard, with its unique combination of a well-established oering, reputation for innovation and strong presence in markets around the world.
Our universities are some of the most prestigious; and the release in
2022 of the student figures for 2020/21, showed that we had reached, for the first time, the International Education Strategy ambition of 600,000 international students studying in the UK yearly. Added to this, more than 500,000 students are studying for UK degrees in 228 countries and territories across the world via the transnational education (TNE) oer.
The UK curriculum is the most popular globally, which is why 55 current world leaders were educated in this country; and, with BSO and other accreditation, UK schools have more campuses overseas than any other country.
With its long history of apprenticeships and work-based training, the UK skills oer provides globally recognised qualifications, with robust quality processes, through a network of more than 220 government-accredited awarding organisations, which are established globally. As a result, 5.8m regulated qualifications are being achieved through the UK’s further education providers.
And in English-language teaching, the UK has unrivalled experience and is at the forefront of developing resources that help learners and teachers to achieve their goals using innovative content, methods and media.
I continue my engagement with overseas governments, to further education partnerships, address market barriers, showcase UK expertise and carve out opportunities for UK education.
My ambition for 2022 was to travel to all my priority countries – these are the countries where we’ve identified opportunities and where I can make the dierence in opening these up.
In March and September, I was in India leading UK professional body and universities missions respectively, the latter coinciding with the Asian Summit on Education & Skills. The headline for India is that we were able to sign a UK-India MoU on the Mutual Recognition of Qualifications – something that has been a number of years in the making and will be instrumental in expanding cooperation and exchange between our two countries’ higher education (HE) systems.
In May and November, I led university delegations to Saudi Arabia where, in addition to progressing the government-to-government partnership, we were able to celebrate successes over the past few months across education subsectors, including schools.
In May and December, I led university delegations to Nigeria; the first visit was combined with an event focused on recruitment into UK boarding schools and the launch of a new British international school, the second aligned with the 60th annual conference of the National University Commission, Nigeria’s university regulator.
And as I write, I’ve recently returned from my first visit to south-east Asia in this role. I was in Vietnam attending the Wilton Park Dialogue: demonstrating UK thought leadership, particularly in skills, and where we showed the UK to be developing new and vibrant ideas to meet the challenges of Net Zero; then in the Philippines where the focus was again on skills, and where
I met the President of the Asian Development Bank to discuss the contribution UK education providers can make to the bank’s plans to become more climate focused; then in Singapore for the international launch of the British Council Alumni UK scheme, which is a key International Education Strategy objective, and where I was also able to attend Going Global, the conference for leaders of international education; and, finally, in Indonesia with an HE TNE mission, where I met education and industry leaders on the subject of curriculum.
Looking ahead to 2023, plans are in place for an equally busy year; one in which I hope I can play my part in building on our continued success.