Commissioners with experience and integrity

The International Higher Education Commission announced its Founding Commissioners in December 2022, with a second group of Commissioners to be announced during the February 2023 session.

The Commissioners’ combined experience, knowledge, and expertise will steer our work, aided by commissions research and additional data and insight. This will provide for an evidence-led Commission that will develop a new, re-energised, international higher education strategy fit for the opportunities and challenges we see for today, tomorrow and the future.

In the coming weeks we will share more information about the Commissioners, their backgrounds and why they are personally committed to developing a comprehensive and inclusive international strategy.

The Commission in action

A number of leading figures and organisations have pledged to support the initiative and the names of the Founding Commissioners will be announced in December along with a series of scene-setting statements from policy makers, regulators, funders and other stakeholders.  The Commission intends to publish its final report in late Spring 2023. Names of further individuals will be identified through nomination during the process.  

The Commissioners’ combined experience, knowledge, and expertise, informed by commissioned research, data and insight, will steer our work and help achieve our aim to develop a new, reenergised, international higher education strategy fit for the opportunities and challenges we can see based on the changed context since 2019.

The commission will develop by engaging with institutional and individual representatives from across the U.K, including the devolved nations and every region of England. It will meet virtually and in-person in a series of roundtable discussions the distillation of which will form the basis of a new ‘International Education Strategy 2.0’ to be submitted to the Department of Education as a sector-wide plan for the future. We expect to publish a series of scene-setting statements from policy makers, regulators, funders, and other influential stakeholders shortly afterwards.

As the Commission progresses, evidence, articles, reports and interim findings will be available for public view on the website to encourage discussion and facilitate wider engagement. 

The Commission intends to publish a series of reports throughout Spring 2023.

Chair of Yorkshire Universities & VC York St John University
Founder and Chair, National Indian Students and Alumni Union
Former Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation (2015-2018)
Chief Executive, UKCISA
CEO, BridgeU
Student Commissioner – Postgraduate student, Newcastle University, Cross-Cultural Communication and Media Studies
President and Principal, Kings College London
Midlands Enterprise Universities Board Member and VC, De Montfort University
Former Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation (2010-2014)
CEO, London Higher
International lead for the Russell Group Universities & VC University of Nottingham
Executive and Board Member University Alliance and Chair of UK Standing Committee for Quality Assessment, Vice Chancellor Middlesex University
Convener of the International Committee of Universities Scotland and Principal & Vice Chancellor, Edinburgh Napier University
President and VC, University of the Arts London, and former Secretary of State for Culture/Work and Pensions
Student Commissioner – Final year undergraduate student, University of Glasgow, Economics and Politics
VP International, University of Dundee, British Council Trustee, Scottish Government Higher Education Trade & Investment Envoy, former Scottish Higher Education Minister