The aim of the commission is to enhance understanding of the journeys that international (non-EEA) students at UK higher education institutions (HEIs) take. This includes consideration of their activities pre-enrolment and post-graduation. Advice to the commission was provided by representatives from Universities UK (UUK), the Home Office, the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS), vice-chancellors and HEI representatives with a responsibility for international students within their own institution.
The commission’s remit originally focused on the evidence base surrounding numbers of international higher education students departing from the UK within a given year, including the International Passenger Survey (IPS). In doing so, this could enhance the crosschecking of student inflows and outflows. However, its remit was widened to examine and evaluate the available evidence on international students’ wider migration patterns; their ‘journey through the UK education system’.
The commission has not considered in detail statistics relating to students other than those in higher education.
Evidence and data relating to migration into and out of the UK are collated by several bodies, including government departments. Despite the emergence of new data sources and welcome improvements to existing ones, it is nonetheless clear that some key gaps remain in the evidence base around student migration. If addressed, these could greatly inform the broader debate around immigration. The limitations of immigration statistics have been well articulated in recent years, and by various groups, including parliamentary select committees , the Migration Advisory Committee and the UK Statistics Authority which, in 2013, suggested that, at that time, the official ‘estimation of emigration (including overseas students returning home…) is particularly problematic and contributes to substantial uncertainty in the net migration estimates for the UK and locally’ .
The commission met three times in total, with research taking place between meetings. As well as analysing official data releases from HESA, the Home Office and the ONS, the commission investigated what alternative sources of information might already be kept by HEIs themselves (as well as other education providers) that could assist in filling some of these gaps.