§ Mr. SimmondsTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will make a statement about the number of overseas students attending UK universities following the recent report published by the British Council, Vision 2020: Forecasting International Student Mobility—A UK Perspective. [168969]
§ Alan JohnsonThis is an important and valuable report. We have every intention of remaining one of the most popular destinations for overseas students. That is why we launched the Prime Minister's Initiative in 1999 to recruit an additional 50,000 international higher education students by 2005. UK Higher Education institutions have already exceeded that target by recruiting an additional 64,635 international students. We remain confident that overseas students will continue to choose to come here to take advantage of the high quality higher education which is on offer.