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Promoting Quality in Teacher Education

Letter to Rt. Hon Nick Gibb, MP: teacher supply and student teachers from the EU

2 July 2020

Dear Minister

The purpose of this letter is to express our concern about the potential impact on teacher supply of the decision to charge student teachers from the EU maximum tuition fees and remove their access to student loans. The position is particularly significant in regards to Modern Foreign Languages, where teachers from the EU constitute about 36% of teachers in UK secondary schools (Tinsley 2018), and TSM targets for MFL recruitment have regularly been missed over the last 10 years. We also anticipate a negative impact on STEM subjects.

We realise that the decision to charge EU students higher fees is in many ways a logical consequence of Brexit, and we have no wish to re-open discussions about that. We do however think that consideration needs to be given to protecting and increasing bursary support for ITE students from EU countries. The government has done a good job in supporting people from the EU to qualify as teachers in this country, particularly those from Spain, and we would not want to put that success at risk.

Yours sincerely,

James Noble-Rogers

Executive Director

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