UK ministers scrap foreign students target in shift to overseas hubs strategy
Ministers are scrapping target numbers for international students in the UK and will instead focus on encouraging universities to open hubs abroad, as part of a plan to bring British education to people “on their own doorsteps”,The government’s new international education strategy will set a target of increasing global “education exports” to £40bn a year by 2030, replacing the previous target – set in 2019 – of recruiting 600,000 international students a year to study in the UK,The Department for Education said it would also bring in “toughened compliance standards” to ensure people coming to the UK to study were genuine students, and that universities would face recruitment caps and licence revocations if they failed to meet those standards,“This approach removes targets on international student numbers in the UK and shifts the focus towards growing education exports overseas by backing UK providers to expand internationally, build partnerships abroad and deliver UK education in new markets,” the DfE said,The education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, said: “By expanding overseas, our universities, colleges and education providers can diversify income, strengthen global partnerships and give millions more access to a world-class UK education on their doorstep, all whilst boosting growth at home.
”The government said it would “continue to welcome international students”.In December, it announced the UK would join the EU’s Erasmus+ programme in 2027.But Amira Campbell, the president of NUS UK, said students wanted to “learn alongside our peers rather than being on different continents”.“The UK has a world-leading university sector – and we are glad the government are recognising this.But integral to this reputation are the international students on our campuses,” she said.
“We know the value of our international student peers is much more than the economic value, but the skills, experience, and knowledge they share.The government must ensure the same high-quality teaching and well-rounded university experience enjoyed by students in the UK is present across all satellite campuses, including abroad, and that we see investment in a high-quality experience for students regardless of location.”In last year’s autumn budget, the government announced a new levy on international students of £925 a student per year of study.In the year ending June 2025, 431,725 sponsored study visas were granted, a decrease of 18% on the previous year, and 34% down from a peak of 652,072 in the year ending June 2023.Ucas said the number of international students applying to undergraduate studies at UK universities and colleges had risen by 2.
2% to 138,460 in 2025, with a record number of applicants from China, up 10%.About 620,000 students are registered with UK universities overseas across almost 200 countries and territories.Prof Malcolm Press, the president of Universities UK, said he warmly welcomed the strategy, which “signals a renewed commitment to fostering the global reach, reputation and impact of our universities”.Institutions must apply and meet the regulations of the host country in order to open facilities abroad, and the DfE said it would help them “remove the red tape to expand overseas”.A new education sector action group will work with universities, colleges, schools and the government’s international education champion to help unblock barriers to expansion overseas.
Deactivate your X account – you won’t miss it when it’s gone | Letter
As a past follower of Marie Le Conte (AKA the Young Vulgarian) on X, I read her column on leaving the platform with interest, complete empathy and self-reflection (To anybody still using X: sexual abuse content is the final straw, it’s time to leave, 12 January).I joined X – or rather, Twitter – in 2007 after reading a Guardian article on the five next hit websites. Needless to say, most of the others have been forgotten. I was bored in my uni halls and it sounded the most interesting.In those days one could sit and watch the global feed – every tweet being posted in the world – with notable seconds between posts
‘Still here!’: X’s Grok AI tool accessible in Malaysia and Indonesia despite ban
Days after Malaysia made global headlines by announcing it would temporarily ban Grok over its ability to generate “grossly offensive and nonconsensual manipulated images”, the generative AI tool was conversing breezily with accounts registered in the country.“Still here! That DNS block in Malaysia is pretty lightweight – easy to bypass with a VPN or DNS tweak,” Grok’s account on X said in response to a question from a user.Grok’s ability to allow users to create sexually explicit images, including images of children, has created a global outcry over recent weeks, with regulators and politicians around the world launching investigations. Indonesia and Malaysia became the first two countries to announce blocks on the technology, with Malaysia’s regulatory body saying last Sunday it had “directed a temporary restriction” on access to Grok, effective as of 11 January 2026. Officials in the Philippines have said they too plan to ban the technology
‘We could hit a wall’: why trillions of dollars of risk is no guarantee of AI reward
Will the race to artificial general intelligence (AGI) lead us to a land of financial plenty – or will it end in a 2008-style bust? Trillions of dollars rest on the answer.The figures are staggering: an estimated $2.9tn (£2.2tn) being spent on datacentres, the central nervous systems of AI tools; the more than $4tn stock market capitalisation of Nvidia, the company that makes the chips powering cutting-edge AI systems; and the $100m signing-on bonuses offered by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta to top engineers at OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.These sky-high numbers are all propped up by investors who expect a return on their trillions
He called himself an ‘untouchable hacker god’. But who was behind the biggest crime Finland has ever known?
Tiina Parikka was half-naked when she read the email. It was a Saturday in late October 2020, and Parikka had spent the morning sorting out plans for distance learning after a Covid outbreak at the school where she was headteacher. She had taken a sauna at her flat in Vantaa, just outside Finland’s capital, Helsinki, and when she came into her bedroom to get dressed, she idly checked her phone. There was a message that began with Parikka’s name and her social security number – the unique code used to identify Finnish people when they access healthcare, education and banking. “I knew then that this is not a game,” she says
China blocks Nvidia H200 AI chips that US government cleared for export – report
Suppliers of parts for Nvidia’s H200 have paused production after Chinese customs officials blocked shipments of the newly approved artificial intelligence processors from entering China, according to a report.Reuters could not immediately verify the report, which appeared in the Financial Times citing two people with knowledge of the matter. Nvidia did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment made outside regular business hours.Nvidia had expected more than one million orders from Chinese clients, the report said, adding that its suppliers had been operating around the clock to prepare for shipping as early as March.Chinese customs authorities this week told customs agents that Nvidia’s H200 chips were not permitted to enter the country, Reuters reported
ChatGPT to start showing ads in the US
ChatGPT will start including advertisements beside answers for US users as OpenAI seeks a new revenue stream.The ads will be tested first in ChatGPT for US users only, the company announced on Friday, after increasing speculation that the San Francisco firm would turn to a potential cashflow model on top of its current subscriptions.The ads will start in the coming weeks and will be included above or below, rather than within, answers. Mock-ups circulated by the company show the ads in a tinted box. They will be served to adult users “when there’s a relevant sponsored product or service based on your current conversation”, according to OpenAI’s announcement
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