Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of (a) the number of officials in his Department involved in recording retained EU legislation for the purposes of the Retained EU Law Dashboard in the latest period for which figures are available and (b) the cost to the public purse of recording that information.
Answered by Will Quince
The department’s staff resource for the dashboard was less than one full time equivalent alongside their normal duties this financial year.
There has been no additional non-pay cost to the public purse by creating the dashboard. The process was led by the Cabinet Office, who commissioned government departments to find retained EU law (REUL) within their legislation and compile an authoritative account of where REUL sits on the UK statute book.
The dashboard itself is made by the Government Strategic Management Office and is hosted on Tableau Public, which is a free platform for hosting public dashboards. The dashboard will continue to be updated at no additional cost.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many places for trainee educational psychologists his Department will fund in 2023; and whether he is taking steps to increase this number in future years.
Answered by Will Quince
Since 2020, the department has increased the number of educational psychologist trainees that we fund to over 200, from 160 per annum. We have invested £30 million to train three more cohorts for the 2020, 2021, and 2022 academic years, to reflect increased demand. The first cohort will enter the workforce in 2023 to provide crucial support to children and young people, schools, families, and local authorities.
On 29 March 2022 the department announced a further investment of over £10 million to train over 200 more educational psychologists. These trainees will begin their courses in September 2023, and graduate in 2026.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions he has had with the (a) Office for Students and (b) the University of Oxford on the 50 per cent reduction in the number of EU citizens studying at the University of Oxford since the UK's exit from the EU; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Departmental officials and I meet regularly with the Office for Students to discuss a wide range of issues.
The government recognises how important international students, including those from the EU are, both culturally and economically. We are proud that for the 2020/21 academic year, we saw positive increases in the number of EU domiciled entrants by 4% compared to 2019/20.
We have demonstrated our commitment to international students through our International Education Strategy which was updated in February 2021 and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-education-strategy-2021-update/international-education-strategy-2021-update-supporting-recovery-driving-growth. Through this strategy, we committed to hosting at least 600,000 international higher education students studying in the UK per year. The latest data shows international enrolments increased by 9% in the 2020/21 academic year with a total of 605,130 compared with 556,625 for the previous academic year. This means we have met our international student’s ambition for the first time, around 10 years early.
In addition, the Student Route coupled with the Graduate Route means we now have a world-class student visa offer befitting our world-class higher education sector. This provides an opportunity for international students, including EU nationals, who have been awarded their degree to live and work or look for work in the UK at any skill level for two years, three for PhDs.
Through this globally competitive offer, we fully anticipate the UK continuing to be an attractive destination for students, not only for EU students but students from across the globe.