Friday 11 April 2014

 

British Council response to the House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee’s inquiry into international STEM students.

Dr Jo Beall, British Council Director of Education and Society, commented: “The British Council warmly welcomes this timely report from the House of Lords Committee. International students make a tremendous academic, cultural and economic contribution to the UK, creating jobs and supporting the excellence of our universities.  Any drop in students must be investigated as the UK cannot afford a brain drain of the world’s most ambitious young people.

“We support the Committee’s recommendation that calls for the re-classification of students in immigration data. For the UK to remain globally competitive, the focus must be on attracting and supporting international students.”

Notes to Editor

The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee will publish their inquiry into international STEM students after 00:01 Friday 11 April 2014.

The supporting evidence volume can be found here: http://www.parliament.uk/documents/lords-committees/science-technology/IntlSTEMstudents/IntlSTEMstudentevidence.pdf

About the British Council

The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We create international opportunities for the people of the UK and other countries and build trust between them worldwide.

We work in more than 100 countries and our 7,000 staff – including 2,000 teachers – work with thousands of professionals and policy makers and millions of young people every year by teaching English, sharing the arts and delivering education and society programmes.

We are a UK charity governed by Royal Charter. A core publically-funded grant provides less than 25 per cent of our turnover which last year was £781 million. The rest of our revenues are earned from services which customers around the world pay for, through education and development contracts and from partnerships with public and private organisations. All our work is in pursuit of our charitable purpose and supports prosperity and security for the UK and globally.

For more information, please visit: www.britishcouncil.org. You can also keep in touch with the British Council through http://twitter.com/britishcouncil and http://blog.britishcouncil.org/.