A clear priority in the UK’s international education strategy is how we work with other countries. There are priority countries, scholarship programmes, and teams in government who create partnerships with foreign governments, schools, universities and their UK counterparts,. Through these partnerships and activities international students can study a range of courses, from short courses delivering executive education to doctoral programmes promoting joint research initiatives. Some of the focus is on a specific country, but in other cases regional collaboration can greatly enhance the diversity of the students who come to study in the UK. In the most recent update of the strategy, government departments were exploring how we can strengthen this activity through trade agreements.
This roundtable brought together representatives from LEARN, the network of staff in London embassies with a focus on education and research, alongside education sector representatives to offer insight into how these collaborations, partnerships and programmes support international education in the UK, and what can be done to strengthen these links. We explored the activities already on offer and looked to what could be possible in the future if we work more closely with experts across the world to support international education.