Given that the UK has a new prime minister in Boris Johnson and the future remains uncertain for Brexit Britain and London as a financial centre, The Banker has looked at one of the areas that might be affected by the UK’s divorce from the EU and which contributes to the standing of an international financial hub: education.
Since the 2016 vote to leave the EU, research groups and academics have warned about Brexit’s impact on universities, with think tank the Higher Education Policy Institute predicting in 2017 that student numbers could drop by as much as 60% after Brexit, as reported by The Guardian.
More recently, one London-based senior academic told The Banker that promising doctoral applicants from overseas dithered over university offers because of concerns over their future in the UK, both as students and as potential jobseekers.
There are other parts of tertiary as well as secondary education that help determine an international financial centre's (IFC's) appeal. The presence of high-quality business schools, including open programmes as well as those custom-made for specific businesses, is important, as are secondary schools that follow an internationally recognised curriculum, the International Baccalaureate. Their presence points to an internationally recognised workforce standard and provides options for the families of professionals relocating to the IFC.
Using data from the Financial Times business schools directory, The Banker has identified the number of business schools present in each of the IFCs we evaluate in our annual ranking (with the full ranking to be published in October). London scores well – nine business schools are based there – and is not far behind Boston, Paris and Shanghai.
In terms of International Baccalaureate schools, London does less well, however, with 17 such schools, putting it between Jakarta and Tokyo, according to data from Geneva-based not-for-profit International Baccalaureate. Top of the list are Chicago, Hong Kong and Melbourne, all with more than three times as many schools as London.
