Liz Truss forces Department for Education into embarrassing climbdown over China policy

 Liz Truss forced the Department for Education into an embarrassing climbdown over China policy ...

Louisa Clarence-Smith

Mon, October 10, 2022 at 1:00 AM·4 min read

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  Liz Truss

  Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 2022

Liz Truss - Reuters

Liz Truss forced the Department for Education into an embarrassing climbdown over China policy when it issued a surprise statement backing the controversial Confucius Institutes.

A Departmental source had told The Telegraph that China is a “leading member of the international community” when the Department defended the Chinese centres in universities.

In a furious backlash, Conservative MPs told Liz Truss to “put her money where her mouth is” on China and overrule the Department.

The Prime Minister on Sunday ordered the Education Secretary Kit Malthouse to revise his Department’s language on China following the backlash. Downing Street and the Foreign Office required the Department to issue a revised statement, The Telegraph was told.

A Government spokesman said: “The Prime Minister’s determination to stand up to China is unwavering and the UK government is committed to doing more to adapt to China’s growing impact.”

He added: “As with any international collaboration, universities have a responsibility to ensure that any partnership with a Confucius Institute is managed appropriately and the right due diligence is in place. We would encourage any providers with concerns to contact the government.”

The 30 institutes were set up in partnership with the Chinese Government to deliver culture and language classes. However, a report by the Henry Jackson Society found that the vast majority are engaged in other activities, from political lobbying to expanding China’s reach into advanced manufacturing. Researchers also alleged that staff at some institutes in the UK are having their political views and ethnic backgrounds filtered by Chinese officials.

In an initial response to the report, a Department for Education source had said: “China is a leading member of the international community, and we have a strong and constructive relationship with China in many areas.”

'Openness and freedom of expression'

A spokesperson for the Department had said that the institutes are “required to operate transparently and with a full commitment to our values of openness and freedom of expression.” The Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill, which is currently passing through Parliament, “addresses concerns about the possible influence of overseas money in English Higher Education whilst ensuring that lawful freedom of speech is supported to the fullest extent,” the spokesperson added.

The U-turn came after Sir Iain Duncan-Smith, the former Conservative leader who is running to become the next chairman of the foreign affairs select committee, said: “If Liz Truss wants to be tougher on China, then let her put her money where her mouth is. And the first thing you’re going to do is ban bloody Confucius Institutes. Out. All together. Gone.” He said the prime minister must “overrule [her] education department and say that they’re not welcome here.”

He added: “I don’t know who authorised this statement…It’s a shocker really.”

Tim Loughton, a Conservative MP, said a group of MPs has called for an “urgent meeting” with Kit Malthouse over the “deeply disappointing” statement, which he said was “completely out of line with current Government thinking”.

Kit Malthouse - TOLGA AKMEN/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock/Shutterstock

Rishi Sunak pledged to ban the institutes, which he said are being used to promote “Chinese soft power”, during his leadership campaign. Ms Truss said she had been much more willing than Mr Sunak to stand up to Beijing.

Bob Seely, another Tory MP, said: “I am a little bit concerned about it, because in some countries Confucius Institutes have been shut down, because they’re a means by which China spies on its students in this country. The Government has made clear its commitment to having a stronger approach to China, and I think Confucius Institutes have to be part of that approach.”

The Government could grant itself the power to ban the institutes via amendments to bills going through parliament including Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill and the National Security Bill. In other countries such as Sweden they have been banned. The US has clamped down on Confucius Institutes by restricting funding to any university that hosts them. In 2013, McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, shut down its institute after a lecturer lodged a discrimination complaint that her religious beliefs were being suppressed.

The Chinese embassy has defended the work of the institutes, saying the “educational exchanges between China and the UK” should be seen “in an objective and sensible manner” and “the huge public interest in learning more about Chinese language and culture” should be “respected and recognised”.

https://news.yahoo.com/liz-truss-put-her-money-170000335.html

Comments

1 day ago These institutes are well known as being a part of the united workers front. They do alot more than just teach Chinese language and culture. They also monitor Chinese students for Chinese authorities. They spy on students critical of China and even silence debate on China within the Univesities undermining aour freedom of speech and expression.

20 hours ago Blatant Chinese propaganda factories and banning Confucius Institutes from all universities is important to handling Chinese interference and misinformation .

1 day ago

Last year China banned all foreign education programs in its schools so for them to complain about this is just pure hypocrisy https://www.thestandard.com.hk/breaking-news/section/3/172376/China-prohibits-foreign-curriculum-in-schools-and-foreign-ownership

China prohibits foreign curriculum in schools and foreign ownership

thestandard.com.hk

UK pulls out of EU’s ‘extremely expensive’ Erasmus scheme

 UK’s replacement program will be called Turing scheme, Boris Johnson announces.

The U.K. has withdrawn from the Erasmus+ university-exchange scheme | Image via iStock

BY CRISTINA GALLARDO

December 24, 2020 6:26 pm

LONDON — British students will not be able to study at European universities with an Erasmus+ grant from 2021 and neither will EU students in the U.K., after the U.K. declined to continue participating in the EU’s flagship student mobility scheme.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed news first reported by POLITICO that a deal with the EU on Erasmus+ had been impossible because it was deemed by London as too expensive.

However, he confirmed plans to launch a domestic scheme to help British students going to universities in and out of Europe. It will be called the Turing scheme, after mathematician Alan Turing, Johnson announced.

Speaking at a press conference from inside Downing Street on Thursday, Johnson said breaking away from Erasmus+ was a “tough decision."

“The issue really was that the U.K. is a massive net contributor to the continent’s higher-education economy because over the last decades we had so many EU nationals, which has been a wonderful thing, but our arrangements mean the U.K. exchequer more or less loses out on the deal,” Johnson said. “Erasmus was also extremely expensive.”

The lack of a deal to participate in Erasmus+ is particularly irritating for British students because five non-EU countries do take part in the scheme, including Turkey, North Macedonia and Switzerland. However, in previous years, the U.K. received almost twice as many students as it sent away.

"Ending UK participation in Erasmus  - an initiative that has expanded opportunities and horizons for so many young people - is cultural vandalism by the UK government," Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Twitter.

Matt Crilly, president of the National Union of Students of Scotland, said failure to reach a deal on Erasmus+ was “disappointing.”

“The Erasmus funding grants help open up international study opportunities for folk who may otherwise not be able to afford it,” he said.

Expectations for a deal on Erasmus+ remained low throughout the year, after the U.K. sought ways to limit the cost of its association and pressed ahead with plans for a domestic scheme in case talks broke down.

“While the announcement that the U.K. will now not be participating in Erasmus+ is disappointing, we are pleased that the prime minister has committed to a new U.K. program to fund global mobility,” said Vivienne Stern, director of the international arm of the vice chancellors group Universities UK. “We now ask the U.K. government to quickly provide clarity on this Erasmus+ domestic alternative, and that it be ambitious and fully funded.”

The EU had offered Britain access to the entire program for seven years, in exchange for a fee which would be calculated on the basis of GDP. The U.K., however, preferred more time-limited participation, and was only interested in the mobility element of the scheme, by far the biggest part — the scheme also funds other higher-education activities such as exchange of best practices by university managers. This would have allowed Britain to save taxpayers’ money but there was no precedent of partial association to Erasmus+.

U.K. Chancellor Rishi Sunak confirmed funding for an alternative to Erasmus+ in the one-year spending review in November. Under the British student-mobility program, the U.K. government would fund British students to go abroad but would not be expected to support EU students taking up courses in British universities.

https://www.politico.eu/article/uk-students-lose-participation-in-eu-erasmus-university-exchange-scheme/

Scotland could sign up to EU student scheme 'unilaterally'

EU students were today assured they can continue to study in Scotland despite no commitment from the UK government that it will continue to participate in the Erasmus+ student exchange scheme.

Gina Davidson
4 hrs ago

© Provided by The Scotsman

Higher Education Minister Richard Lochhead told students and staff at Aberdeen University - which has one of the largest European campus populations in Scotland - the government was "stepping up efforts" to ensure Scottish universities remain open to EU students.

The Erasmus+ scheme, the EU’s flagship cultural and educational project which has run for 30 years, will end when the transition period comes to a close at the end of this year.

An amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill, which would have mandated the government to continue to seek full membership of the programme after Brexit, was defeated last month, throwing the future of the educational partnership into doubt. However Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has said he will look at "successor schemes".

Proportionally more Scots take part in Erasmus+ than from any other country in the UK, with more than 2,000 Scottish students enrolling each year. Between 2014 and 2018, 14,000 Scots used the EU scheme, securing over 90 million Euros in funding. And since the beginning of the current Erasmus+ programme in 2014 around 12,000 EU students have come to study in Scotland.

© Getty LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - JANUARY 21, 2020: Secretary of State for Education Gavin Williamson arrives in Downing Street in central London to attend a Cabinet meeting on 21 January, 2020 in London, England.- PHOTOGRAPH BY Wiktor Szymanowicz / Barcroft Media (Photo credit should read Wiktor Szymanowicz / Barcroft Media via Getty Images)

Aberdeen University enrolled 2,655 students from 33 countries through Erasmus+ at the start of the current academic year, and a total of 709 staff - 17 per cent of its workforce - also come from the EU.

Today Mr Lochhead told students that should the UK government continue to refuse to sign up to Erasmus+, the Scottish Government will seek to do so "unilaterally".

Non-EU members can "partner" with the scheme subject to criteria, but there are no current partners who are not sovereign states, or whose territory is not "recognised by international law".

Mr Lochhead said: “Scotland is an open and inclusive country. EU students will always be welcome here and today we are stepping up our efforts to ensure our universities are seen across Europe as open for business.

“Thousands of Scottish students, teachers and young people have benefited from the popular Erasmus+ scheme, while at the same time our campuses and country have been enriched by EU nationals choosing to live and study here.

“This much-cherished and respected learning, training and cultural programme is at serious risk – and we are clear that it must continue. Over the coming weeks we will make the case strongly to the UK Government that continued association with Erasmus+ is of the utmost importance.

“In the event the UK Government decides to abandon the programme, we will also be looking at the possibility of Scotland associating unilaterally.”

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/scotland-could-sign-up-to-eu-student-scheme-unilaterally/ar-BBZB6r1

EU students could face higher fees to study in UK from 2020

Higher education groups call on government to clarify its policy on tuition costs

Sun 28 Apr 2019   15:28 BST

 Students at Edgbaston Campus, University of Birmingham. Photograph: Kumar Sriskandan/Alamy Stock Photo/Alamy Stock Photo

Charging EU citizens full international student fees to study in England risks “pulling up the drawbridge” after Brexit, higher education leaders and opposition parties have warned, calling on the government to clarify its policy.

Although it has long been assumed that EU students would lose access to loans and pay higher tuition fees after Brexit, a report in Buzzfeed raised fears that the higher fees could soon be imposed on EU students who start courses after the UK’s exit.

EU citizens starting courses at English universities this autumn are eligible for student loans and tuition fees at the same level as English students for the whole of their course. But the Department for Education (DfE) is said to be preparing for higher fees for new EU students starting as early as 2020.

Nick Hillman, the head of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said: “Ever since the referendum, it’s been highly likely that EU students would come to face the higher fees charged to those from other countries. Morally, it would be exceedingly hard to defend charging richer Germans less than poorer Indians if we are not in the EU.

“But fee levels are only part of the picture. EU students can currently take out loans with the Student Loans Company to pay their fees and the loans don’t need to be repaid until later on. Losing access to the loans matters as much as the headline fee, because suddenly they will have to find the money upfront.”

Universities UK, the group representing 140 UK higher education institutions, urged the DfE to clarify its intentions while the UK remained in Brexit limbo.

“It is essential there is no further delay in the UK government confirming the fee status for EU students starting courses at English universities in autumn 2020. The recruitment cycle is already well under way,” a spokesperson for Universities UK said.

“The ongoing uncertainty is restricting student choice and the ability of English universities to recruit the best students from the EU. Whatever the eventual fee status of EU nationals, universities need at least 18 months’ notice of any change.”

Since the referendum in 2016, the government in England has extended the current agreement of reciprocal fees each year, guaranteeing access to loans and domestic tuition fees for the duration of a degree course.

A DfE spokesperson said: “Last year, we announced that students from the EU starting courses in England in the 2019-20 academic year will continue to be eligible for home fee status, which means they will be charged the same tuition fees as UK students.

“The government will provide sufficient notice for prospective EU students on fee arrangements ahead of the 2020-21 academic year and subsequent years in the future.”

The Scottish government has already announced that EU students who start courses in September 2020 will still be eligible for home fee status, which in Scotland means no tuition fees for undergraduates. Wales has yet to announce its plans for 2020 onwards.

The DfE is developing a new immigration policy for post-Brexit study, including for students from the EU, who currently have no visa restrictions. But if the UK remains in the EU after next autumn, then pressure will grow on the DfE to extend the policy for at least a further year.

The University and College Union, which represents many university staff, said the policy, and the government’s chaotic handling of Brexit, will “send a clear message to the world that Britain is pulling up the drawbridge for international students”.

Both Labour and Change UK condemned the change as likely to deter EU students, with Change UK’s education spokeswoman, Ann Coffey, saying: “This is another example of Brexit damaging both our public services and our economy.”

Jo Grady, a Sheffield University lecturer who is a candidate in UCU’s forthcoming election for general secretary, said the policy would be an extension of the “hostile environment” masterminded by the Home Office under Theresa May.

“As with many other aspects of the EU, this government has never welcomed EU students and never appreciated the many reciprocal benefits we get from the agreement to charge them home fees, including the benefit of enabling our own students to study in the EU more cheaply or for free,” Grady said.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/apr/28/eu-students-could-face-higher-fees-to-study-in-uk-from-2020

Record numbers from China and Hong Kong applying to study in UK

Chinese and Hongkonger university applicants now outnumber those from Wales

Thu 7 Feb 2019   00:00 GMT

The number of Ucas applications from China and Hong Kong rose to 21,000 this year. In contrast, 18,850 applications came from Wales. Photograph: Chris Ison/PA

Record numbers of students from China and Hong Kong are applying for places at British universities, overtaking the number of applicants from Wales, according to official figures.

Data from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) shows a spike in demand for undergraduate places from mainland China and a small rise in applications from the EU, despite fears over Brexit.

The figures taken from Ucas’s January deadline, when the bulk of undergraduate applications are made, show a 1% decline in UK applicants, but a 9% surge from international candidates meant the total number of applications went up for the first time in three years.

The number of applications from China and Hong Kong rose from more than 17,000 last year to 21,000 this year. In contrast, only 18,850 applications came from Wales, meaning that if those trends are sustained there will soon be more undergraduates from China studying at British universities than from Wales.

Last year there were also more than 100,000 postgraduate students from China and Hong Kong at British universities, out of nearly 350,000 full-time postgraduates.

Overall the numbers will come as a relief to the higher education sector, after widespread concern that the Brexit crisis would erode applications from within the EU and outside Europe.

“It is very welcome news that students from the EU and China continue to see UK universities as top world class destinations,” said Chris Skidmore, the universities minister for England.

British universities have redoubled their recruitment efforts overseas, while for European applicants it may be their last chance to access lower tuition fees and student loans before Britain exits the EU. International students from outside the EU generally pay much higher fees and are not eligible for loans from the UK government.

Clare Marchant, Ucas’s chief executive, said: “‘In this time of uncertainty, it’s welcome news to see more EU and international students wanting to come and study in the UK.”

Alistair Jarvis, the chief executive of Universities UK, which lobbies on behalf of British universities, said despite the latest figures the UK risked falling behind rivals such as New Zealand.

“We are calling for a new graduate visa that will make the UK more attractive to international students, allowing a wider range of employers in all parts of the UK to benefit from access to talented graduates from around the world,” Jarvis said.

Application rates from within the UK also appear to have defied predictions of a fall-off driven by rising student debt. Despite a 2% fall in the number of 18-year-olds in the population, the proportion from that age group applying to university jumped to nearly 39% in England, while in Wales there was a rise to above 32%.

“The unexpected rise in the application rate from English 18-year-olds, against the population trend, signals they still recognise the challenge and rewards of full-time undergraduate study,” Marchant said.

Policymakers will be pleased to see a narrowing in the gap in applications from the least and most advantaged households, with 23% of young people living in areas of low educational attainment now applying for places.

The results came against a background of uncertainty over funding, with a review commissioned by Theresa May expected to recommend tuition fees be cut to £6,500-£7,000 from their current level of £9,250.

“To drive social mobility and strengthen the economy, the current post-18 education review should recommend policies to support access for anyone who has the potential to benefit from a university education,” said Jarvis.

Universities UK this week launched a national campaign asking the government to keep funding study abroad opportunities for British students if the UK cannot remain a member of the pan-European Erasmus student programme after Brexit.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/feb/07/record-numbers-china-hong-kong-applying-study-uk-universities