Call for Evidence

The provision of education is something that is devolved to local Overseas Territory governments. However, as the administrating power for the Territories, the UK Government has a responsibility under the UN charter to promote their political, economic, social, and educational advancement.  

In its 2012 White Paper on the Territories, the UK Government said education was a “priority” for aid assistance. This included teacher training, UK-Territory partnerships, and related infrastructure improvements, such as schools and internet access. There are only three OTs that do not have access to higher education facilities in territory: The Falkland Islands; Pitcairn; and St Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha (of these Pitcairn and St Helena and Tristan da Cunha are also in receipt of UK aid).1 

This call for evidence will focus on the support students and institutions get from the UK Government and explore possible areas for improvement to their approach. There will be a particular focus on territories currently not able to provide higher education to their students. 

As the Sub-Committee looks to scrutinise the Government’s engagement in the Overseas Territories, we welcome written evidence addressing the following: 

• In what ways is the UK Government supporting education of students from the Overseas Territories? 
• Is the Government reaching its aspiration to prioritise aid assistance for education to Official Development Assistance (ODA) eligible territories?  
• What challenges do Overseas Territories students looking to study in the UK face, and what can the UK Government do to help? 
• To what extent are the various responsible Government departments working together in achieving their goals regarding education and the Overseas Territories?
• To what extent have they been responsive to requests and concerns raised by the Overseas Territories and their students? 

Your submission should:

• be concise - if over 3,000 words, include a short summary as well
• be presented in numbered paragraphs
• include an introduction to you or your organisation and your reason for submitting evidence
• not already be published

Submissions should be in malleable format such as MS Word (not PDFs) with no use of colour or logos. Guidance on submitting written evidence and data protection information is available here: Guidance on submitting written evidence.

Deadline for submissions

The deadline for written submissions is 23:59pm on 8 April. Written evidence may be submitted on the basis of anonymity (meaning that it will be published, but without your name), or in confidence (meaning that it won't be published at all). If you would like to submit evidence anonymously or in confidence, you will be able to select this option during the submission process. Please also state at the beginning of your evidence which of these you want to request, and tell us why.

For further guidance, you can contact fac@parliament.uk.

It is recommended that all submitters familiarise themselves with the Guidance on giving evidence to a Select Committee of the House of Commons which outlines particulars of word count, format, document size, and content restrictions.

Diversity

We encourage members of underrepresented groups to submit written evidence. We aim to have diverse panels of Select Committee witnesses and ask organisations to bear this in mind when we ask them to choose a representative. We are currently monitoring the diversity of our witnesses.