Policy paper

International Education Strategy: global potential, global growth

Strategy setting out the government’s ambition for education exports and how it will support the UK education sector to access global opportunities.

Documents

Details

The Department for Education (DfE) and the Department for International Trade (DIT) launched the International Education Strategy in 2019. The strategy sets out the government’s ambition to:

  • increase the value of education exports to £35 billion per year by 2030
  • increase the total number of international students choosing to study in the UK higher education system each year to 600,000 by 2030

The strategy sets out 5 cross-cutting strategic actions, developed through consultation with the education sector:

  1. Appoint an International Education Champion to spearhead overseas activity.
  2. Ensure Education is GREAT promotes the breadth and diversity of the UK education offer more fully to international audiences.
  3. Continue to provide a welcoming environment for international students and develop an increasingly competitive offer.
  4. Establish a whole-of-government approach by implementing a framework for ministerial engagement with the sector and formalised structures for coordination between government departments, both domestically and overseas.
  5. Provide a clearer picture of exports activity by improving the accuracy and coverage of our annually published education exports data.

These actions are supported with more specific actions, targeted at the respective needs and challenges of the different parts of the education sector. They are intended to help the UK build global market share across the education sector, from early years to higher education.

Policy updates

Read the International Education Strategy: 2021 update highlighting progress, government support to the UK education sector and future priorities.

Published 16 March 2019
Last updated 16 February 2021 + show all updates
  1. Added the link for the International Education Strategy 2021 update.

  2. First published.