6th October 2011
The Duke of York hosts a Seminar on the delivery of UK Education overseas.
UK education provision is highly respected abroad and the sector is of significant value to the UK economy, as well as providing the benefits of “soft diplomacy” in the years ahead. With this in mind, HRH The Duke of York recently held an Education Day with the key commercial providers of education and education services, to establish the overseas providers opportunities and concerns, and to look at ways in which the provision of education overseas can be better supported in the years ahead.
Highlighted below are the views and points that were raised by the participants during this seminar with His Royal Highness.
The UK education sector is a very fragmented one, with a large number of small players.
The particular long-running issues raised by the participants relate to difficulties with student visas, the role of the British Council, the considerable number of potential high value opportunities overseas and the apparent lack of focus in identifying and delivering successful commercial solutions overseas.
The day was built around three sessions. The morning session focussed on the practitioners: those delivering education overseas through schools and contracts. Most of the major UK players and their parent bodies were involved. Lunch was a high level discussion about the opportunities overseas and how to take best advantage of these opportunities. It included Sir Michael Barber (Chief Education Advisor, Pearson), Edward Oakden (MD Sectors Group in UKTI), BIS, BESA, COBIS, the Dept for Education, Reform and the OUP.The afternoon session focussed on education infrastructure: including courses, curricula, examinations, training, buildings and equipment.
The key conclusions from these three sessions were:
1.UK education is highly respected overseas, and there is a great opportunity to engage in what is estimated to be a £30bn potential business in (over £7k/year) private school provision overseas. The infrastructure opportunities are of the same order.In addition, the area of low cost private school provision overseas has hardly been tackled and is assessed to be worth a further £30bn.
2.It was suggested that the biggest opportunity is not in teaching expat children, but in teaching local children. But, there are barriers to foreign education providers teaching nationals in a number of countries, such as China. Assistance from Government will be required if these barriers are to be reduced.
3.There needs to be an umbrella organisation to represent UK commercial education provision overseas. The Duke of York volunteered to be the Patron, and to support future efforts overseas. Work has begun to put such a structure in place.
4.The importance of building a single brand which will be understood overseas.
5.The importance of maintaining standards in “British” education provision overseas. Very easy to damage the brand.
6.The importance of the FCO, worldwide, in selling the UK education case.An important part of “soft diplomacy”.
7.The need for companies to have early intelligence from Government sources as to which education projects are coming up overseas. The participants felt that this is currently not in place. Could be part of the role of the proposed umbrella organisation’s responsibilities (see Para 3).
8.Importance of building the UK vocational qualification brands overseas. Employer focussed and excellent qualifications, supported by the UK Sector Skills Councils. Major opportunities. But need recognition of qualifications in a number of countries.
9.There are capability issues, when dealing with markets such as India and China. Co-operation and consortia will be the only answer. Hence the need to collaborate more.
10. Proposal to trial a co-ordinated education offering from the UK education private sector.With the proposed developments in education in Saudi Arabia, this could be a good start point.
We will be following up these points in the months ahead, with the aim to hold a review on progress in six months time.
