Sir Steve Smith on new UK IES: biggest change is pivot towards TNE

It’s the document we’ve all been waiting for: the new IES is finally here. While it builds on the ambitions set out in its predecessor way back in 2019, there are a few notable exceptions.

The most obvious change is that the government has shifted away from an outright ambition to grow international numbers in the UK – set at a 30% increase in the last IES. Instead, the new strategy aims for ambitious growth in education exports to the tune of £40 billion per year, as well as a growing focus on transnational education (TNE).

“The big thing for me… was the pivot towards TNE,” Sir Steve Smith told The PIE News in an exclusive interview last week.

“Governments want to send students to the UK, but they also want to develop TNE in their own countries.”

As the UK’s international education champion, Sir Steve was instrumental in drawing up the revamped strategy, with input from the Department for Education, the Department for Business & Trade and – crucial to the new IES’s soft power focus – the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.

The revamped strategy moves away from recruiting more students to come to the UK and towards opening up opportunities for TNE partnerships abroad – name checking India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam as target countries, while also recognising the “strategic importance” of China and Hong Kong.

The UK is already in the midst of a TNE boom, most notably seen in a slew of British universities opening branch campuses in India, with many more eyeing opportunities to expand overseas.

While Sir Steve admitted that the £40bn target is “ambitious”, he was pleased with the scope of the strategy’s aims given the clamour for British education abroad. “In a way, the danger is we underestimate the significance of the growth and export target,” he said, highlighting that governments from all over the world are proactively inviting TNE opportunities in their countries.

“In a world in which everyone wants British education, this is not us trying to sell something that doesn’t sell,” said Sir Steve. “This is us working out how we represent all bits of the sector in a world where a minister can’t go abroad these days and meet another government without them saying, ‘Oh, we’d like to talk to you about education.'”

Not only do TNE partnerships offer high quality international education at a much lower price point than sending students abroad, said Sir Steve, but the approach avoids ‘brain drain’ because bright students can stay in their own country for educational opportunities.

While stakeholders may have been disappointed to see a lack of UK-based international enrolment growth in the strategy, Sir Steve pointed out that its stated aim of continuing to recruit “high-quality” international students is something of a win in today’s political climate.

“There could have been a reduction [in numbers], given the noise on immigration. So we were really pleased to get this commitment across government for the continued recruitment of high-quality students” he told The PIE.

“You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to realise that anything to do with large numbers of international students coming to the UK is a politically sensitive issue.”

You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to realise that anything to do with large numbers of international students coming to the UK is a politically sensitive issue
_{Sir Steve Smith, UK international education champion}

Six years after the first IES was published, the UK’s education sector is now being assessed on early years, edtech, special educational needs, and – increasingly – skills, following the publication of the skills white paper in the autumn.

“The first strategy really was a child of that world. And now it’s much more about moving towards bringing the strength of the UK’s education system across the board to the international market.”

Another sea change is the ministerially appointed Education Sector Action Group (ESAG) – a reformed version of the existing Education Sector Advisory Group whose members are yet to be confirmed – in charting the strategy’s future course. The group is likely to be made up various representative groups, which will each feed meat onto the bones of the new IES, with each member given 100 days from their appointment to come up with a plan reflecting their members’ priorities.

“It’s a way of responding to the fact that there’s such width in the sector and such specialisation, that we just don’t have the resource in DBT,” said Sir Steve of the approach. “It’s about trying to make sure that we represent the whole of the education sector.”

The post Sir Steve Smith on new UK IES: biggest change is pivot towards TNE appeared first on The PIE News.