Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions he has had with the Home Secretary on the number of international students at UK universities.

The department engages regularly with the Home Office on matters relating to international students at English higher education providers.

The department remains committed to and continues to work towards the ambition in the International Education Strategy, published in 2019 and updated in 2021 and 2022, to host at least 600,000 international students in the UK per year, by 2030.

We were hugely proud to meet this ambition for the first time in the 2020/21 academic year with 605,130 international students in the UK.

Attracting the brightest students from around the world is good for our universities, delivering growth at home as well as supporting the creation of more university places for UK students. This remains a priority for the department.