This chapter focuses on policy information relating to mobility and internationalisation which is specific to Wales. Information on UK-wide strategies and programmes is provided in the article on ‘Mobility and Internationalisation’ for England. This includes information on the European Union Erasmus+ umbrella programme, running from 2014 to 2020, which brings together programmes for education, training, youth and sport to promote international mobility and partnerships.
The Welsh Government sets out its approach to international engagement in Wales in the World, which was published in 2015. This includes a commitment to supporting and developing the following education and skills priorities:
- promoting life skills and experience in global citizenship
- international student recruitment and exchange
- transnational education
- promoting partnerships to encourage collaborative research, innovation and enterprise.
Since the publication of Wales in the World, the international landscape has changed significantly, creating the need for a refocused international vision for Wales. The Welsh Government published a draft new international strategy for public consultation in July 2019. Responses have been analysed and are being used to inform the final international strategy document. The development of the new strategy follows the completion, in February 2019, of an inquiry by the External Affairs and Additional Legislation Committee of the National Assembly for Wales into Wales’ future relationship with Europe and the world. This focused on the networks, relationships and institutions to be prioritised and on how these relationships can be sustained following the UK’s departure from the European Union. The final inquiry report recommended that Wales develop a new strategy for international engagement taking account of the major changes that lie ahead.
In November 2015, the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW), the Welsh Government, British Council Wales and Universities Wales launched the ‘Global Wales’ programme. This aims to boost student recruitment and international research collaboration; promote Welsh universities in key overseas markets; attract further inward investment; and support student and staff mobility. In its first three years, the programme focused its activities in the United States and Vietnam.
The Welsh Government works with a wide variety of stakeholders at local, national and international level to achieve its international ambitions. For example, it funds the International Education Programme, which is managed by the British Council and has the following aims and objectives:
- to provide participating individuals with the knowledge and skills necessary to contribute in a global community
- to increase awareness, attitudes and response to global learning
- to increase sustained collaboration between Wales and other countries
- to improve levels of educational achievement
- to increase the employability of young people in Wales
- to focus on key Welsh Government education policy priorities.
The programme covers nursery, primary, secondary, further and higher education, and aims to benefit professionals and children and young people by enabling them to participate in formal and non-formal international educational opportunities.
ColegauCymru/CollegesWales is the representative body for further education (FE) colleges in Wales. Through its international arm, it supports further education staff to undertake training and develop partnerships with organisations abroad, and helps students undertake work experience in organisations across Europe.
The principles of the Welsh Government’s international agenda, as set out in Wales in the World (2015), have been built into everyday life in schools, with the embedding of Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship (ESDGC) as a cross-cutting theme in the school curriculum, and through the framework for personal and social education (PSE). In addition, the wider school curriculum supports government internationalisation policy by promoting English / Welsh bilingualism and by the inclusion of Curriculum Cymreig, and Wales, Europe and the World.
Higher education institutions are autonomous bodies and are free to decide which subjects and combinations of subjects to offer, and how to incorporate the global dimension.
Article last reviewed November 2019.