At The PIE Live Europe 2026 in March, Sir Steve Smith revealed the Office and Cabinet Office will be members of ESAG, the ministerially led committee that will create action plans to deliver the UK’s worldwide education method. Now, the government has released the complete list of core members, along with additional advisory members.
ESAG brings together government, industry and representatives from across the education sector to address essential difficulties and determine partnership chances.
The sector will play a central role in providing the technique through action strategies, set to be established and released within the very first 100 days of the group’s inaugural meeting, which took place in April.
Core members will attend all ESAG meetings and lead the development of sector action plans, in collaboration with advisers. Advisers attend subgroup meetings organised by the core subscription and deliver delegated elements of the sector action plans.
The core ESAG members are:
- Chair, UK Skills Collaboration
- President, Early Years Alliance
- President, National Association for Special Educational Needs (NASEN)
- Director, Universities UK International (UUKi)
- Deputy director general, British Educational Providers Association (BESA)
- President, English UK
- CEO, Independent Schools Council (ISC)
ESAG members taking an advisory role are:
- Association of British Schools Overseas (AoBSO)
- Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL)
- British Association of Independent Schools with International Trainees (BAISIS)
- British Council
- British Education Travel Association (BETA)
- Cambridge University Press Evaluation (CUPA)
- Council of British International Schools (COBIS)
- ECCTIS
- IDP
- Independent Higher Education
- Pearson
- Quality Control Firm
- Research Study Group/Destination for Education
- Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS)
- UK Council for International Trainee Affairs (UKCISA)
A number of federal government agents are signing up with ESAG, in addition to cross-government departments and degenerated federal governments:
- Sir Steve Smith, UK international education champion
- Department for Business and Trade (DBT)
- Department for Education (DfE)
- Foreign, Commonwealth and Advancement Workplace (FCDO)
- Northern Ireland
- Scotland
- Wales
Additional federal government departments signing up with are:
- Cabinet Workplace
- Home Office/UK Visas and Migration (UKVI)
- Department for Science, Development and Innovation (DSIT)
- Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
According to the UK federal government, “selection of members to the ESAG will be based upon keeping numbers to a minimum whilst making it the most reliable group it can be”.
In January 2026, the UK federal government exposed a new– and long-awaited– worldwide education technique, consisting of an ambitious objective to grow education exports to ₤ 40 billion per year by 2030, with growth expected to come from TNE, ELT, skills and edtech.
The technique looks to oversee sustainable overseas trainee recruitment and enhance the UK’s international standing through education– including a focus on cutting bureaucracy for TNE partnerships abroad.
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