U.K. education - Britain’s most important export?

I know that it is unfashionable for the British to blow their own trumpets but “the U.K. has some of the very best schools and universities in the world.” There I said it.

The critical insider’s view might be that the British educational system in its various forms is far from perfect but, viewed in a global context, it is quite remarkable. Indeed, increasing numbers of people around the world are buying into British education either by studying in the U.K.; or by enrolling at a British curriculum school or university in their own country.

So, is U.K. Education is Britain’s most important export?

International Students Studying in the U.K.

The U.K. universities have attracted the world’s elite for the best part of a century. Today, the United Kingdom is the second most popular university destination in the world for international students, behind the United States. In 2018/19 there were 485,600 overseas students studying at U.K. universities, accounting for 20% of the total student population.[1] Higher Education Institutions contributed ￡13.4 billion to U.K. revenue in 2016.[2] Given the importance of this income stream, it is not surprising that the U.K. Government has set a target of 600,000 international students studying in the U.K. by 2030.[3]

The same can be said of U.K. boarding schools. Britain has some of the very best boarding schools in the world and they still attract significant numbers from across the globe. In 2020 there were 29,446 students who parents live overseas studying in U.K. Independent Schools; of these 5,127 were from Hong Kong and 8,290 from Mainland China.[4] International students may only account for 5.5% of students at U.K. independent schools, but they constitute a significant 38.9% of the total number of boarders. Indeed, many boarding schools would not be financially viable without the income from international students.

Taking British Education Around the World

British education has never remained confined to its own shores. Britain’s top universities, as well as its boarding and day schools, have long been the model for educational excellence that has been adopted around the world. It is no coincidence that Harvard and Yale look like Oxford and Cambridge; or that boarding schools in Australia would fit in well in the Home Counties.

Schools

The establishment of British international schools around the world initially went hand in hand with the expansion of British trade and industry. The availability of good British curriculum schools was, and remains, a pre-requisite for attracting talent to cities like Hong Kong because expat families would not make the move abroad without the availability of good local schools. The expansion in the Asia-Pacific region is typical: Tanglin Schools Trust in Singapore (1925), Alice Smith in Kuala Lumpur (1946), Bangkok Patana School (1957), British School of Jakarta (1973), Kellett School, The British International School in Hong Kong (1976), and The British School Manila (1976).

The past twenty years has seen an explosion of British International Schools opening up around the world. There were 2,584 English-speaking international schools in 2000 which grew to 12,119 international schools with enrolment of 5.58 million students in 2021 and this trend set to continue, despite the short-term impact of Covid-19, at a rate of 1% and 5% a year.[5]

The most high-profile manifestation of this has been the ‘export’ of U.K. Independent School setting up overseas campuses - 69 have been established so far. The drivers for these ventures have undoubtedly been financial with the profits from overseas’ campuses subsidising fees funding bursaries at the U.K. ‘mother’ school.

The biggest market by far is Mainland China. Currently there are 57 U.K. independent school campuses in China: 14 opened in 2020 and schools have announced that a further 43 are in the pipeline, 17 in Guangdong alone.[6] Most of these new schools will have shifted away from the expat, international school model; instead, they are targeting aspirational, middle-class, local families by providing a bilingual Chinese-British curriculum model.

Universities

The establishment of university ‘branch’ campuses overseas has been another field where the U.K. is a world leader. Nottingham was the first British university to establish an international campus in 2000 when it opened its Semenyih Campus in Malaysia. Today there are 42 international ‘branch’ campuses of U.K. universities.[7] In 2017–18, there were 1.5 times as many students studying for a U.K. degree overseas than there are international students studying in the U.K..[8]

Examinations

One other significant educational export is that of examinations. There are also thousands of students internationally taking U.K. examinations like the IGCSE and professional qualifications in everything from accountancy to health and safety.

The Importance of U.K. Education PLC:

The importance of exporting U.K. Education should not just be seen purely in economic terms - it is far from being the U.K.’s financially significant export – indeed U.K. education is only the U.K.’s fifth largest services export sector. Rather, its true importance is in terms of the ‘soft power’ that it brings.

‘Soft power’ is a measure of a nation’s influence: it is about ‘hearts and minds’. The results from the British Council’s 2018 youth perceptions survey of the G20[9], and those of various other rankings such as the Portland Soft Power 30, [10] both conclude that the U.K. is one of the leading ‘soft power’ nations in the world. Britain’s influence in this area is disproportionate - this is in no small part due to part that U.K. Education plays.

Britain has a long history of educating the world’s elite. Its ‘soft power’ is embodied most visibly by the prime ministers, chancellors and presidents who studied in the U.K. in their younger years. At present, the U.K. educated the current leaders of around one in four countries in the world.[11]

As a consequence of the formative times spent studying in the British system, these senior figures around the world have a greater bond and affinity with the U.K. which can manifest itself in diplomatic, ethical and trade decision-making. For this reason, International students have been called ‘the best ambassadors a nation has’.[12]

The Ongoing Importance of U.K. Education?

U.K. Education finds itself at an important juncture, and the jury is out on whether or not Britain can maintain its status and influence on global education into the mid-Twenty-first Century.

There is no doubt that the U.K.’s hold in Higher Education is slipping. Oxford may still rank at number one, but the U.K. only has 7 universities in the world top 50; the US has 25.[13] Alongside this, the U.S. toppled the U.K. from its long-held “soft power” top spot of educating the most of world leaders in 2018; and latest figures show that the trend is continuing. [14]

U.K. Education’s ongoing importance is likely to be worked out in two key political arenas.

The first is Europe. What will be the impact of Brexit? In 2018-19, there were 143,000 students from the E.U. studying in U.K. universities – accounting for 30% of the International student population.[15] The funding arrangements for E.U. students studying in the U.K. will undoubtedly be an important factor here. It is important that Britain remains attractive as a place of study for our European cousins.

The second is China. Given the importance of China as a supplier of international students around the world, much will depend on whether China continues to send its youth to study abroad, and whether the U.K. or the U.S. is seen as the most desirable English-speaking destination. The growth of British curriculum schools in China may be influential here. It will also be dependent on the extent to which China develops world-class Higher education institutions of its own over the coming years.

And so . . . .

The U.K. continues to have great influence on education around the world. It is a privilege with all my colleagues at Kellett, to fly the flag for British Education here in Hong Kong and to contribute in a small way to what is undoubtedly “Britain’s most important export”.

This article was published in the British Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong Magazine March 2021.

Notes

[1] House of Commons Research Briefing International and EU students in higher education in the U.K. FAQs August 2020

[2] DfE U.K. revenue from education related exports and transnational education activity in 2016 January 2019

[3] DfE and DIT International Education Strategy global potential, global growth March 2019

[4] Independent Schools Council Annual Census 2020 April 2020

[5] ISC Research Ltd. data January 2021.

[6] Venture British Schools in China – Annual Report 2020.

[7] Cross-Border Educational Research Team website https://cbert.org/resources-data/intl-campus – updated November 2020

[8] British Council Sources of soft power – how perceptions determine the success of nations 2019

[9] British Council Powers of attraction Young people’s views on the soft power of the G20 group of nations 2018

[10] Portland The Soft Power Report 2019

[11] Higher Education Policy Institute Annual Soft-Power Ranking 2020

[12] Gareth Williams, ‘Introduction’, in Gareth Williams, Martin Kenyon and Lynn Williams (eds), Readings in Overseas Student Policy, 1987, p.10

[13] Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2021

[14] Higher Education Policy Institute Annual Soft-Power Ranking 2020

[15] House of Commons Research Briefing International and EU students in higher education in the U.K. FAQs August 2020