To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they have taken to promote the attractiveness of the higher education sector, and what work is being undertaken by the Department for Education and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to promote the sector internationally.
My Lords, this Government are committed to maintaining our world-leading higher education sector and promoting its attractiveness internationally. The Secretary of State for Education, in her first speech, set out the valuable contribution that international students make to our universities, communities and country. We are also working with FCDO and DBT colleagues on a new international education strategy, to ensure that we are maximising the impact of our education system globally.
My noble friend and I know, to our cost, how difficult it is to get the Home Office—or the ONS, for that matter—to change its mind about anything as the world changes around it. Given that international students pay very large sums of money to receive a service and bring enormous amounts of funding and cultural improvement to our country, is it not time to persuade the Home Office to take international students out of the migration statistics?
My noble friend is right in several of his comments, including that international students enrich our campuses and communities, form lifelong friendships, become global ambassadors and contribute to the economic benefits of this country—which is why they will always be welcome. The Office for National Statistics is of course independent in producing its statistics, but I encourage people to look at the detailed breakdown of migration statistics that it also provides, which identifies different elements of migration. As I have always done in my ministerial life, I will continue to listen to my noble friend and do what I can to work on the priorities that he puts to me.
My Lords, one of the problems with the Turing scheme not being reciprocal is that it is much harder for universities to form international partnerships. Have His Majesty’s Government assessed the impact of that on the sustainability and reputation of our higher education sector?
It is right that the Turing scheme funds UK students to engage internationally in all stages of education, but it is not the case that there are not also other forms of support, including through our colleagues in DSIT, for international partnerships in the areas of both research and teaching and university co-operation. If we look, for example, at the value of transnational education, where UK universities have sites in or relationships with other countries, we see a growing sector, and these are all areas that we will want to look at in the international education strategy.
My Lords, this week saw the most extraordinary announcement from the Office for Students that it was suspending its activity in relation to new registrations, new applications for degree-awarding powers and new applications for university title until at least August 2025 to allow it to focus on the financial sustainability of the sector. Does the Minister agree with me that this sends the most terrible message to students both in this country and overseas, and risks undermining the financial sustainability it seeks to achieve?
No, I do not agree with the noble Baroness. In fact, the message that it sends is that this Government, unlike the last, are determined to ensure that we put universities on a firmer financial footing. We are not willing to sit by, as the last Government did, while universities face considerable financial pressure. That is why we asked the Office for Students to refocus on the issue of financial sustainability, to help to create a secure future for our world-leading universities, and it is also why we were willing to take the difficult decision to increase tuition fees this year, in order to provide some additional finance for universities in very straitened times.
My Lords, I thank the Chief Whip. If we are going to make sure that the universities are accessible to our own students, can we have an indication of what level of support we are expecting to get from foreign students, and have that discussion out in the open quickly?
It is already the case that the earnings that come from international students’ contribution to universities are helping to subsidise the cost of domestic students. There is not a lose/lose here. Having international students and welcoming them into this country has benefited our domestic students and benefited universities’ research capacity.
Does the Minister not recognise that we are in the process of destroying our universities through swingeing cuts to their staff that have been occasioned by their financial distress? A denuded universities sector will not be attractive to foreign students. Moreover, the present conditions of service of university staff deter people from joining the academic profession.
Yes, this Minister does recognise that, which is precisely why this Government, unlike the last Government, have taken action to put universities’ finances on a more sustainable basis. It is fundamentally important that we can protect our world-leading universities sector, ensure that the staff doing such an important job there are supported and attract students, both domestic and international, to the benefit of them and of our country.