Earlier this month, the Metropolis of London staged certainly one of its most time-honoured traditions: the annual parade marking the inauguration of its new civic chief. However this 12 months’s occasion was historic for greater than its pageantry.
For the primary time in 697 years, the Lord Mayor’s Present grew to become the Woman Mayor’s Present, as Dame Susan Langley DBE took workplace beneath a title that alerts each continuity and alter.
The Lady Mayor’s pledge to “un-square the Sq. Mile” – to make the Metropolis extra open, inclusive and revolutionary – may additionally not be extra well timed. If she is critical about modernising the mayoralty, then championing worldwide training have to be on the coronary heart of her agenda.
Schooling as commerce and funding
The Metropolis of London isn’t just a significant world monetary centre; it’s a completely worldwide pupil metropolis. In addition to being house to the massive multi-faculty establishment of Metropolis St George’s, College of London, the Metropolis additionally boasts the Guildhall College of Music and Drama and has historic hyperlinks to a number of prestigious additional and better training suppliers throughout the capital.
The abroad college students that these establishments collectively appeal to feed a expertise pipeline underpinning each sector of the Metropolis’s economic system. In line with research by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI), only one 12 months’s cohort of worldwide college students within the Cities of London and Westminster brings in £352 million of web advantages yearly, equating to £2,940 per resident.
London’s companies perceive this significance. New research from London Larger reveals 90% of corporations within the capital say world graduates are important for filling expertise gaps and driving innovation, and greater than half admit they’d think about relocating if entry to this expertise have been curtailed.
From monetary companies to tech firms and the creative industries, London’s employers worth the language expertise, cultural consciousness and world networks that worldwide graduates present. These are the belongings that give the Sq. Mile its aggressive edge in a fiercely world market.
Storm clouds forward
Nevertheless, these belongings are beneath menace. Headwinds going through UK larger training are stiffening: financial pressures, rising working prices and ongoing coverage uncertainty round visas and a global charge levy are all working to reduce London’s abroad enchantment. Universities are regularly being requested to do extra with much less, whereas destructive rhetoric round immigration dangers deterring the very world expertise that the Metropolis must thrive.
Universities are regularly being requested to do extra with much less, whereas destructive rhetoric round immigration dangers deterring the very world expertise that the Metropolis must thrive
Ought to the Metropolis of London’s larger training establishments begin dropping floor within the worldwide training export market then the ripple results shall be felt far past their campuses – from pupil housing markets, eating places and native espresso outlets to the large metropolis companies that depend on a gradual circulate of expert graduates with the nous to function in a globally linked world.
Convening energy
That is the place the Woman Mayor’s convening energy issues. Her function is just not merely ceremonial. Because the elected head of the Metropolis of London Company, she is a worldwide ambassador for the UK’s monetary {and professional} companies sector, tasked with driving development and innovation by way of diplomacy and engagement.
In an period when rival monetary centres resembling New York, Singapore and Dubai are doubling down on expertise attraction, London can’t afford to be complacent. A contemporary mayoralty ought to see universities and faculties as strategic belongings within the Metropolis’s success, not peripheral gamers round its monetary prowess. Opening the doorways of Mansion Home for occasions that champion training as a cornerstone of competitiveness would ship a robust sign of assist.
Advocacy for larger training is just not a fringe situation. It’s finally about future-proofing the Metropolis for the challenges that lie forward. Larger training fuels innovation, entrepreneurship and cultural capital – all of the qualities that the Metropolis prizes in its pursuit of development and prosperity. Alumni of London’s establishments go on to turn out to be world decision-makers in quite a lot of sectors and industries and carry with them an affinity for the Metropolis that always interprets into funding and affect later down the road.
A brand new narrative for development
At a time when the Metropolis’s economic system is crying out for high-level expertise – and the UK authorities is doubling down on native responsiveness by way of a civic coverage lens – the Sq. Mile has a golden alternative to guide by instance beneath its new Woman Mayor: forging partnerships between enterprise and training, supporting pathways into high-demand sectors and amplifying the Metropolis of London’s message as a welcoming vacation spot for learners and staff from all backgrounds – significantly ladies impressed by their new figurehead.
The Lady Mayor has said herself that, “The Metropolis is just not about partitions to maintain individuals out, however about welcoming individuals in.” That ethos ought to prolong to college students as a lot as to buyers as a result of, if we fail to maintain London open to world expertise, we danger diminishing the Metropolis’s universities and weakening the very foundations of the Sq. Mile’s success.
The Woman Mayor’s tenure in Mansion Home presents an opportunity for the Metropolis to reset its narrative and present that worldwide training is a strategic lever for the Metropolis’s development. By championing worldwide college students and forging stronger ties between academia and trade, the Metropolis can safe its place because the world’s most linked monetary hub – thriving on openness, expertise and concepts.
If the Metropolis of London desires to stay the beating coronary heart of worldwide commerce, then it should even be the beating coronary heart of worldwide studying.
