Jo Johnson, former Universities, Science, Research and Innovation Minister, has written a report on the future of international students. The headline recommendation is to double the UK post-study work visa offer (Graduate Immigration Route) from 2 to 4 years, which would have a hugely positive impact on both the university sector and UK entrepreneurship.
Universities have suffered more than most sectors from the pandemic. Many are anticipating a drop in international students of 50-75%, which would represent a significant reversal for one of the great boom sectors of the globalised economy.
Universities are reliant on international students. As Johnson argues in his introduction, Governments have long required universities to develop additional revenue streams to cross-subsidise research, which loses 25p in the pound, and the teaching of certain strategically-significant laboratory and studio-based subjects that cost more to deliver than the £9,250 fees paid by domestic students. As such, “far from squeezing out qualified domestic students, overseas students have made viable courses and research opportunities that would otherwise not be offered.”
The report references our Job Creators research (which Johnson wrote the Foreword to), and the headline stat that 49% of the UK’s fastest growing start-ups have at least one immigrant co-founder, including 9 of the list’s 14 unicorns.
It draws on the case studies of a couple of top entrepreneurs in our network: “A cursory examination of the country’s top start-ups illustrates the case for keeping the country open to international students. Take Joshua Wöhle, the founder of $100m+ Internet safety company SuperAwesome, who initially moved to the UK from Switzerland to study Computer Science at King’s College London, or Christian Nentwich, who founded his $100m+ fin-tech start-up after completing his PhD at University College London.”
In recent years, UK international student numbers have been flat, while Australia, which is on the verge of overtaking the UK in terms of total overseas numbers, has now seen steady year-on-year growth of around 14%. Increasing the post-study work visa offer will help ensure we don’t land up any further down under.
Good to GREAT
GREAT is the government’s flagship international marketing strategy which in light of covid-19 will be launching a new campaign.
It will shine a light on inspirational UK businesses that have gone above and beyond during the covid-19 pandemic to operate for their employees, customers or contributed to their communities.
They’ve asked us for recommendations of a broad range of businesses from across the UK. You’ll need to be able to tell an inspirational story related to your work during the pandemic. If you want to be considered for this, send me a brief note on how your business has adapted, with a link to your company website and a contact number and I’ll pass it to the powers that be.
On the Blog
Anton Howes has written about how to improve copyright to engender more innovation while protecting rights-holders. Under the status quo, law-abiding would-be users of copyrighted material face massive hurdles when they want to use content, for which the creator is now deceased. In order to conduct a ‘diligent search’ and track down the current rightsholder to avoid liability to infringement suits, creative entrepreneurs are forced to become expert genealogists. It creates a massive barrier for innovators and creatives.
To solve this problem, Anton suggests replicating the US system, whereby works have to be registered a certain number of years after the creator’s death, in order for the rightsholder to bring an infringement case. This idea might be developed into a research paper, so do get in touch with him if you have any feedback or potential case studies to illustrate the problems with the current system.
I like big ideas, and there are few as big as the suggestion that the UK sets up a sovereign wealth fund. However, as I wrote this week, there are reasons to be cautious about political interference. The idea being mooted is for this fund to invest in key businesses outside of London as part of the Prime Minister's levelling up agenda. I argue we should tread carefully, as this is an unusual remit for a sovereign wealth fund, and we already have policy levers and established institutions to support the levelling up agenda.
Support Ultrapreneurship
Julian ‘The Ultrapreneur’ Hall got in touch to share details of his upcoming online kids business fair, which is normally a physical event. Ultra Education is a leading social enterprise, teaching entrepreneurship to children from 7 to 18. Julian's mission is to increase the life chances of the most disadvantaged children using the skills and mindset of entrepreneurship, and over the years he has been an impressive and active part of our work around enterprise education. He is looking for support and collaboration for his inaugural online business fair. You can get in touch with Julian here.
Fair Dinkum