A Study Of The Policy Process Of The U.K.'s International Education Policy

In the context of globalization, serving as a national strategy for maintaining political influence and economic competitiveness, international education is playing an increasingly important role in national development and the U.K. ranks top in this field. In addition, China has also been aimed at developing its international education in recent years. Therefore, in order to contribute to the development of China's international education, it is important to understand the policy process of the U.K.'s international education policy.This paper aims to propose feasible suggestions for improving the policy process of China's international education policy through the analysis of the U.K.'s international education policy process. The author reviewed the domestic and international literature on international education and the U.K.'s international education policy, with an aim to analyze the U.K.'s international education policy process. First of all, this paper researched the main body of U.K.'s international education policy making, the process of policy making, and the main factors influencing policy making. Then this paper elaborated on the process of implementing the U.K.'s international education policy, the means of implementation, and the factors influencing the effective implementation. Later on, this paper analyzed the process of evaluating the U.K.'s international education policy. Finally, this paper summarized the U.K.'s international education policy process and then illustrated the advantages and problems of the policy process, and on this basis this paper proposed feasible suggestions for improving the policy process of China's international education policy.Through research, this paper concludes that the main body of U.K.'s international education policy making includes the Parliament, the Cabinet and the Privy Council, and the Department for Education. The process of policy making includes the generation of policy issues, policy agenda setting, and policy legalization. The main factors influencing policy making include both domestic and international factors, while domestic factors include political (party politics and interest groups) and economic factors. Besides, the process of implementing the U.K.'s international education policy includes making execution plans, preparing for policy implementation, policy advocacy, and full implementation. The means of implementation include administrative and legal means. The factors influencing the effective implementation include not only the internal environment of policy implementation (appropriate policy objectives, policy feasibility and legitimacy), but also the external environment of policy implementation (the policy environment and the agreement of policy objects for policy). What's more, the process of evaluating the U.K.'s international education policy includes the feedbacks from different groups on the U.K.'s international education policy, policy adjustments and policy re-output.In the end, this paper drew conclusions that the advantages of the U.K.'s international education policy process are that different groups can impose influence on it and bipartisan politics make the government adjust and improve the policy in time. Furthermore, the problems of the policy process are that it may be influenced by some special interest groups and it is inefficient. On this basis, this paper proposed recommendations of improving China's international education policy process:the government should take the advice of different interest groups when making international education policy; economic factors should be taken into consideration in the policy making process; the influence of the factors beyond the policy on the implementation of international education policy should be paid attention to; the government should make adjustment to the international education policy in time based on the feedbacks.