Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to work with the education sector "to enhance the evidence base on international graduate outcomes and to monitor the UK’s comparative position with respect to international student recruitment and the international student experience", further to Action 5 of their International Education Strategy.

As set out in government’s International Education Strategy (IES), we are committed to growing the value of education exports with two key ambitions to achieve by 2030: increasing education exports to £35 billion per year, and hosting at least 600,000 international higher education students in the UK per year.

We are making good progress against these ambitions. For example, the international students ambition was met for the first time in the academic year 2020/21 with 605,130 international students studying in the UK.

The government continues to work with the sector to enhance international student experience, from application to employment, as well as promoting and sustaining the growth of education exports and international student numbers. The actions set out in strategy include items relating to the student application process, graduate outcomes and employability, academic experience for international students and alternative student finance opportunities. We have committed to review progress regularly against the IES and its ambitions.