Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of recent immigration policy changes on the higher education sector.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government has been clear that we welcome international students who meet the requirements to study in the UK. International students come from all over the world and benefit UK higher education (HE) and our society, boosting our economy by more than £21 billion a year.
The government expects the UK’s HE sector to remain highly attractive. We have four UK universities in the world’s top 10 and 17 in the top 100, alongside a wide array of other high-quality institutions.
The system must, however, ensure that international students make a positive contribution to the communities in which they study. We will not permit anyone who seeks to exploit the system.
The Immigration White Paper, published in May, sets out a balanced approach which helps the government achieve our manifesto commitment of reducing net migration while maintaining the UK’s global competitiveness.
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support estranged and care-experienced students in higher education.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is committed to ensuring that care experienced and estranged people can access, participate and achieve in higher education (HE).
All looked-after children must have a personal education plan, which should set out the support needed to help realise their short and long-term academic outcomes. To ensure they have a greater chance of achieving the prior attainment needed to access HE, the government provides £14 million per year of additional funding to support looked-after children up to the age of 19. This is administered by virtual school heads and can be used on attainment raising activity such as tuition, mentoring or careers advice and other activities based on the individual needs of each looked-after child.
In addition to a statutory £2,000 Care Leavers in HE bursary, all HE providers registered with the Office for Students (OfS) that intend to charge higher level tuition fees must have an Access and Participation Plan (APPs) approved by the OfS. These plans articulate how providers will improve equality of opportunity for underrepresented groups. Care experienced and estranged students are classed as ‘at risk’ groups in the Equality of Opportunity Risk Register and providers should take account of inequalities they may experience when developing their APPs.