Chinese students already constitute the largest single
source of overseas students in the UK, with 155,000
students currently in the UK worth an estimated £5 billion
annually.
There are also now some 9,000 young British people studying
and interning in China, with numbers up 60% since 2013.
Visiting the Chinese city of Wuhan today, which has the
largest student population of any city in the world, the
Prime Minister will announce details of a new approach
covering pre-school through to post-grad education. It
includes:
- a new commitment to extend the UK-China Maths Teacher
Exchange primary school programme for a further two years
to 2020. This will enable an additional 140 primary
teachers in England to benefit from further training in
China. We will also expand the exchange programme to
include up to 45 teachers in English secondary schools. The
pioneering scheme involves English teachers visiting China
for two weeks and Chinese teachers visiting England for two
weeks, enabling schools to experience world-class maths
teaching in English classrooms. The exchange programme also
supports our work to take the total number of English
schools benefitting from the East-Asian style maths
Teaching for Mastery programme to 11,000 by 2023
- an agreement to facilitate joint training of pre-school
staff in the UK and China
- improved UK-China information-sharing on vocational
education through more study exchanges
- the launch of a new “English is GREAT” campaign,
promoting proficiency in English for more people in China.
There are over 300 million people learning English in
China. The campaign will support individuals in improving
their language proficiency as a means to achieve their own
professional and personal ambitions – and to provide
significant commercial opportunities for the UK by opening
up a market worth over $2 billion a year. This will echo
the UK-Mandarin Excellence Programme, launched in 2016 and
which aims to have 5000 secondary school pupils in the UK
fluent in Mandarin by 2020
The Prime Minister will also welcome a major new package of
commercial deliverables in the education sector –
reinforcing the UK’s position as a global leader in this
field.
Education deals totalling more than £550m will be announced
as part of the visit, creating over 800 jobs in the UK.
They include a £75m export win for the UK’s biggest
childcare provider Busy Bees, who will open 20 new
nurseries across China along with their Chinese
stakeholder, Oriental Cambridge Education Group.
The Prime Minister said:
The close ties between the UK and China are reflected in
our relationship on education. More than 150,000 Chinese
students study at the UK’s world-leading institutions and
make a significant contribution to our academic life.
The agreements we have signed today will build on that
and enable more children and more young people than ever
to share their ideas about our two great nations.
And by teaching children to speak our languages we will
ensure that our Golden Era of co-operation will endure
for generations to come.
Education Secretary said:
Standards are rising in our schools, with 1.9 million
more children in good or outstanding schools than in 2010
and nine out of ten schools given this rating at their
last inspection. We want to build on this success, to
ensure all pupils can access a world-class education that
inspires them to make the most of their lives, no matter
where they live or their background.
Mandarin is the most spoken language in the world, so
this partnership will play a crucial role in teaching
pupils the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in
an increasingly global economy. By opening up these
opportunities to more young people, we can help to build
a Britain that is fit for the future.
