Entrepreneurs, investors and others in our ecosystem are starting to get jittery about the upcoming Budget. It’s only natural. A new party is in power, and, while some assurances have been made, there are concerns that we will be blindsided by something unexpected.
You can have your say. You have until the 10th September to provide a written submission to HM Treasury ahead of the 30th October Budget. For our part, we’ll be drawing on our recent reports like Backing Breakthrough Businesses, Making Tax Simple, Funding to Flourish, and Access All Areas: Finance for our submission.
Enroly Polo
This week, Enroly, a web platform used by international students for managing enrolment, revealed (paywall) a 35% drop in deposits for places on UK university courses.
This is a massive deal for universities because – as we all know – international students' fees help to subsidise university operations, research, cover budget shortfalls, and have become essential for keeping them solvent. I’ll save the thorny issue of university funding for another day, but instead focus on what we’re missing out on.
British education exists in a competitive international market. Among other things, the drop in numbers is a result of the previous Government increasing the minimum earning threshold for the Skilled Worker visa, and making it harder for people to bring their families. This has put UK universities at a competitive disadvantage compared to our key competitors.
Bridget Phillipson, Labour’s Education Secretary, has refused to reverse these changes, but went on to talk a good rhetorical game, describing being open to international students as “a big part of our reach around the world, the impact that we can have as a country, the business links, the trading links, the opportunities and the bridges that we build between nations.”
Positive rhetoric is all to the good – vibes really do matter – but it will only get us so far. These young people are net contributors. As reported in The Economist this week: “A forthcoming research paper for the Migration Observatory finds that migrants from outside Europe who started working in 2021 earned 97% of the median British wage in the second year and 104% in the third year.”
So, on net, international graduates are paying more in taxes than the median Brit. At the same time, the very smartest are changing the world – many through entrepreneurship. MacroPolo think-tank in Chicago has the numbers to prove it, (paywall): “The smartest people are highly mobile. Only 3.6% of the world’s population are migrants. But of the 1,000 people with the highest scores in the entrance exam for India’s elite institutes of technology, 36% migrate after graduation. Among the top 100, 62% do. Among the top 20% of AI researchers in the world, 42% work abroad.”
Message from our partner
Join the Enterprise Investment Scheme Association and the EIS/SEIS ecosystem to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the EIS!
On Wednesday, 18th September, we are celebrating 30 incredible years of the Enterprise Investment Scheme.
We will be holding an exciting in person conference, bursting with key speakers and important conversations, followed by an evening reception, where you will be served delicious drinks and canapes.
In the run up to the event, we're spotlighting investee companies with EIS/SEIS success stories. Get in touch with the EISA team if you would like to be a part of the campaign!
If you would like to learn about the event, explore the speakers and the tickets, you can see more details here.