Education as Soft Power

The UK’s new International Education Strategy sets out an ambitious vision. Education as soft power. Education as trade. Education as diplomacy. Education as a £40 billion export sector by 2030. At one level, it’s hard to argue with any of that.

Soft power is one of the UK’s real strengths and like so many of our loved institutions from the BBC to our great museums, our universities are central to it. For decades they’ve educated heads of state, business leaders, scientists, artists, reformers. They’ve shaped research agendas, built alumni networks across continents and created relationships that last far beyond graduation.

The strategy is right to position education as a tool of global engagement. It talks about trust, partnership and growing transnational education overseas. All of that makes sense.

But soft power only works if it feels authentic. It cannot send mixed signals.

Policy Coherence and the Student Experience

There is, however, a credibility gap we need to acknowledge. I’m not sure the UK is still widely seen as “open”. For the last few years, the UK has been viewed as increasingly unwelcoming to international students – the repeated tightening of visa rules, the rhetoric around migration numbers has all had consequences. We all know the effect successive shifts in visa policy have had on international recruitment and it seems markets and families have responded quickly.

So, when we now talk about positioning the UK as a global partner of choice, we need to recognise that some of that trust has been eroded. If we are encouraging UK institutions to expand overseas, deepen TNE partnerships and build long term presence in other countries, we also must be honest about how we treat the students who want to come here. When we promote partnership but create instability around post study work or graduate routes, the signal overseas is: you are welcome to pay, you are less welcome to stay.

The new focus on transnational education can read, at its most cynical, as an attempt to compensate. If attracting students to the UK has become more politically complicated, then perhaps the solution is to send UK institutions to students in their home markets instead. That may be a crude reading of the strategy, but it is a reading that exists.

If education is genuinely about long term partnership, then policy coherence is important.

Internationalisation as Institutional Strategy

Alongside the national story, there is a much tougher institutional reality.

For councils/governing bodies and executive teams, internationalisation is rarely about prestige. In many institutions it is now fundamental to long term sustainability.

With domestic fee income capped and research cross subsidy stretched, transnational education is often seen as one of the few meaningful routes to income diversification. The strategy highlights the value of education exports and the growth in TNE. The figures are significant but what sits behind them is risk.

International expansion cannot be viewed as a side project, rather a core strategy which will be a serious governance test.

The Questions That Sit Around the Board Table

What happens when regulatory frameworks shift overnight?

What happens when political contexts change?

What happens when local expectations sit uncomfortably alongside UK academic norms?

If you are building a campus in, say, the Middle East and want to teach law to attract students, can you teach international human rights law in exactly the same way you would in Manchester or Cardiff? If your brand is built on critical inquiry, how do you protect that in jurisdictions where certain debates carry different sensitivities?

Of course, some international ventures thrive and create real mutual benefit. But others stretch leadership capacity, strain finances and expose institutions to reputational risk. A small number have pushed even major universities into very uncomfortable territory financially. And some have exited their international presence with unseemly haste that leaves a lasting, bitter impression on their hosts

Internationalisation without clarity on governance and academic freedom is less soft power and more exposure.

Being on the Ground

This is the space we operate in.

At Anderson Quigley we work with universities and education organisations navigating exactly these questions. We have established a presence in the Middle East because you cannot understand these markets from a desk in the UK. You need face-to-face relationships. You need cultural fluency. You need to understand how regulatory and political dynamics actually play out.

We are supporting existing local and regional education providers, as well as partnering with British-based K-12 groups and universities, to support leadership appointments, governance capability, and organisational design, as they scale internationally. And we are working alongside other sector partners and supporting local events, conferences, and awards, because none of this works in isolation.

When you are on the ground, the conversation changes. The practical realities are clearer. The risks are sharper but so are the opportunities.

The Opportunity and the Responsibility

International education – in both directions – can do enormous good. There are UK institutions doing thoughtful, high-quality work across the world that genuinely strengthens systems and builds long term partnerships.

But it has to be real. If education is going to sit at the centre of the UK’s global strategy, then national policy and institutional practice have to align. Export ambition cannot be divorced from immigration policy. Overseas growth cannot sit separately from academic freedom. Financial resilience cannot come at the expense of institutional integrity.

Soft power is not created by headlines or targets. It is built slowly, through trust. And trust, once weakened, is difficult to rebuild. The international opportunity is significant and so is the responsibility.

International Education: A New Strategy for FE Colleges | AQ

With over 20 years’ experience of delivering leadership and public appointments for the education and wider public sector, Ed brings a deep knowledge of the education system and an international network of cross-sector executive, non-executive and political connections.

Having previously developed and led one of the country’s foremost education executive search practices, he has a national reputation for exceptional client delivery. His career has been built on one simple mantra: clients and candidates first. His track record ranges from entire top-team restructures and single leadership roles to high profile public and Crown appointments. His career spans the education, government, health and charity sectors – across the UK and beyond. You can connect with Ed on LinkedIn or email him at ed.pritchard@andersonquigley.com.