here - United Kingdom Parliament

1301W
Written Answers
6 JUNE 2013
Written Answers
1302W
Sign Language
Simon Kirby: To ask the Secretary of State for Business,
Innovation and Skills what steps his Department is
taking to ensure the services it offers are accessible to
British Sign Language users. [157922]
Matthew Hancock: I refer my hon. Friend to the reply
I provided to the right hon. Member for Gordon
(Sir Malcolm Bruce) on 13 May 2013, Official Report,
column 85W.
Students: Part-time Education
Mr Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Business,
Innovation and Skills if he will publish the full-time
equivalent of HEFCE-fundable part-time students, by
parliamentary constituency in which those students have
their home address, in (a) 2011-12 and (b) 2012-13;
and if he will make a statement. [158439]
Mr Willetts: Information on the number of UK
domiciled HEFCE-fundable part-time students, by
parliamentary constituency at English HEIs for the
academic year 2011/12 will be placed in the Libraries of
the House. The data has been broken down by level of
study.
Information for the 2012/13 academic year will become
available from the Higher Education Statistics Agency
in January 2014.
Please note that these figures do not include HEFCEfundable
part-time students who were registered at FECs
as finalised 2011-12 data are not yet available to robustly
identify this population at an individual level. We estimate
that there were in excess of 10,000 part-time full-time
equivalent students at FECs in 2011/12.
UK Trade and Investment
Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for
Business, Innovation and Skills (1) how the new
education advisory group of UK Trade and Investment
plans to interact with the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office to ensure that embassies understand the value of
UK education exports in emerging markets; [157906]
(2) how the education advisory group of UK Trade
and Investment works with education-focused private
sector and charitable organisations to promote UK
education exports abroad; [157907]
(3) what steps he is taking to ensure that UK Trade
and Investment’s new education advisory group will
take a comprehensive view of UK education exports
that goes wider than solely increasing the number of
international students in UK-based universities; [157902]
(4) how UK Trade and Investment’s new education
advisory group is being recruited; [157903]
(5) what the remit will be of UK Trade and
Investment’s new education advisory group; [157904]
(6) what the timetable is for the recruitment of the
new UK Trade and Investment education advisory group.
[157905]
Mr Willetts: BIS and UKTI have jointly established
an Education UK Unit that will identify high-value
export opportunities and support UK providers to respond
effectively, fostering the development of UK consortia
and helping them to prepare and promote bids. It will
act as a ’one-stop-shop’ for overseas Governments or
large companies wanting to engage UK partners in
their large-scale education projects.
The new unit forms part of the Government’s industrial
strategy for the education sector. We have long recognised
the value of international education partnerships to the
UK and already provide considerable in-country support
to British companies and educational institutions working
alone or in small groups through UKTI, DFID, FCO
and the British Council. But there is a clear trend
towards countries requiring support with large-scale
education projects that require a co-ordinated effort
from multiple providers.
The remit of the new unit will be to identify suitable
opportunities and support UK organisations to win
large-scale commercial contracts across a wide range of
education-related products and services, from schools,
colleges, universities and private providers, to teaching,
equipment, architecture—though higher education and
vocational and technical skills. The unit will co-ordinate
a joined-up UK response to make the most of these
opportunities and the UK. The work of the unit will be
driven by the opportunities that emerge and our response
will be tailored to the needs of each project. The new
unit will be staffed by a combination of existing civil
servants and secondments from external organisations
with an interest in education exports such as the British
Council. Staff are currently being recruited to expand
the small team that have piloted the approach since July
2012. The managing director of the unit is being recruited
through open external competition. The new team will
build to full capacity by autumn 2013.
The Education UK Unit already works closely with
relevant staff in embassies overseas, including those in
emerging markets, many of whom have already been
engaged in supporting UK firms in the education sector
to export to and operate in their markets.
The unit engages, often through representative and
membership organisations, with a wide range of public,
private and charitable organisations that have the potential
to export their educational expertise or products. Although
the unit will facilitate the formation of consortia, the
organisations involved will determine membership and
contractual arrangements.