UK ministers scrap international student targets as part of £40bn education strategy

The Labour government is removing its policies on international student goals as part of a drive to increase education exports, one of the UK’s most valuable resources.

Under the umbrella of education exports are UK institutions delivering British education abroad, UK qualifications, and international students studying in the UK.

Updated from the 2019 Strategy is the target for international student numbers. The previous target aimed to have 600,000 international students in the UK by 2030. The new Strategy sets no targets on international student numbers, focusing instead on “shift[ing] the focus towards growing education exports overseas by backing UK providers to expand internationally, build partnerships abroad and deliver UK education in new markets.”

Education exports in 2022 were valued at £32.3 billion, making it a larger industry than both automotives and food & drink

The change in policy is part of a new International Education Strategy, which lists the following ambitions:

• Increasing the UK’s international standing through education and making the UK the global partner of choice at every stage of learning
• Recruiting high-quality international higher education students from a diverse range of countries
• Collectively growing education exports to £40 billion per year by 2030

According to a press release on 20 January, this new Strategy takes into account recent growth in the education sector, raising the previous 2019 Strategy’s aim of £35 billion in annual education exports by 2030 to £40 billion.

Education exports in 2022 were valued at £32.3 billion, making it a larger industry than both automotives and food and drink. The industry is growing rapidly, showing an increase of 9.5% between 2021 and 2022.

Despite international student fees constituting 73.4% of the value of all education exports in 2022, the updated Strategy will place emphasis on smaller fields that show potential for growth.

One such field is Transnational Education (TNE), as the sector has shown huge growth in recent years. This includes remote learning and UK university campuses based abroad, such as the University of Southampton’s India branch, and other UK overseas campuses.