International Education Strategy Governance Group minutes: September 2024

Attendees and apologies

•    (Chair) Mr Dey, Minister for Higher and Further Education and Minister for Veterans
•    Adam Reid, Scottish Government
•    Gareth Williams, Prosper
•    Harish Lokhun, British Council (deputising for Peter Brown)
•    James Miller, Universities Scotland
•    Neville Wylie, Connected Scotland
•    Rachel Sandison, University of Glasgow
•    James McKean, Colleges Scotland
•    Roy Gardner, City of Glasgow College
•    Stephen Decent, RKEC
•    Tom Rice, Universities Branding Group

Apologies

•    Peter Brown, British Council
•    Wendy Alexander, Scottish Government Trade and Investment Envoy

Items and actions

Welcome and apologies

The Minister for Higher and Further Education and Minister for Veterans extended a welcome to members and particularly those who were attending for the first time and noted the progress that is being made towards the aims of the International Education Strategy (IES). The Minister outlined the context for the work being undertaken and in particular an acknowledgement of the importance that the funding had been secured by the Scottish Government to allow progression of the Destination Scotland marketing programme that had been highlighted as vital to the Sector at the last meeting.

Minutes of last meeting and actions arising

Members agreed accuracy of the minutes. An update on the actions was made following the International Committee’s meeting with SQA and progress noted that further collaboration and working towards the shared aims would be maintained.

Destination Scotland programme

A joint presentation by Brand Scotland and Chair of the Universities’ Branding Group was given, which demonstrated the collaborative approach alongside a co ordinated response to the scale and focus of what is required.

The presentation highlighted work to enhance the Scotland.org study pages and the creation of a toolkit for the sector to use to promote Scotland as a study destination of choice. Timeline and key dates were set out, noting the intention to coincide with the launch in full of Scotland’s Migration Service. It was confirmed that messaging will also encourage people to stay in Scotland after they have completed their studies.

Recognising that the development of the website needs to be led by the student voice, research with students is underway, as well the development of a toolkit that will enable the sector to tell the story of Scotland at international events, giving consistent brand message across sites.

Members were positive about the progress made to date and enthusiastic about the planned work for the coming months. It was also agreed that a contemporary image of Scotland is to be preferred for the messaging to bring out the dynamism of our cities and culture. The Minister was keen to highlight the need for a range of voices and from a range of localities and that all have their unique offerings. Connected Scotland highlighted that a regional focus would allow for localities to highlight their uniqueness.

It was noted that the impact of this will take time to be seen, but monitoring processes are in place and KPIs identified which are based on website traffic and tracking the movement of traffic to the universities’ websites for further information. KPIs will also be matched to the IES.

Members made offers of case studies to illustrate success stories which will be followed up by Brand Scotland.

International Higher Education Research

A presentation was given by the International Higher Education Research team.

The presentation highlighted the very strong position Scotland is in with a world leading research sector, and that the success is built on collaboration. Discussion was encouraged on how to harness this for the purposes for IES.

Members gave positive feedback on the work and it was highlighted that all universities and colleges will have strong links with European partners and can provide brand building contacts to leverage that relationship. This will be followed up.

British Council noted the opportunity to maximise their Going Global springboard research funds which supports the upskilling of researchers and facilitates mobility. Priority areas have been identified and leads to follow up on were highlighted including in Germany and Scandinavia.

Any other business

The Minister noted that the intention was to keep the Governance Group numbers to a manageable number but that feedback was being considered for additional members to ensure full coverage of the themes. The members agreed to 3 additional members and these individuals will be approached in due course.

The Minister gave an update on the second year of the Scottish Education Exchange Programme (SEEP) Test and Learn, noting that the application window closed on the 15th September and expressed his delight in the volume and range of applications received, particularly as there were substantial applications from the college sector in this round of funding. Applications are being assessed and decisions on funding allocations should be made quickly to allow for Grant Letters to be issued in the coming weeks.

Key actions

•    Breakdown of marketing budget allocations by IES themes to be shared by Brand Scotland
•    Case studies to be provided by members to Brand Scotland for inclusion in Destination Scotland content
•    Date for next meeting to be arranged for November to allow for update on progress of Destination Scotland programme