The House of Lords Select Committee on Soft Power and the UK’s Influence today published their report titled ‘Persuasion and Power in the Modern World’. The report highlighted the need for the UK government to increase support for international scholarship programmes. In line with evidence submitted by the ACU to the Select Committee, the report also found that ‘academic and scientific collaboration represents one of the most effective forms of diplomacy’.

The ACU, currently running the UK government’s three main scholarship schemes, supplied written evidence to the Select Committee in 2013 detailing how academic activity – particularly government-funded scholarships – has ‘significant potential to influence the reputation of the UK’.

The ACU’s assertion was that – although not their main objective – Chevening, Commonwealth and Marshall scholarships were demonstrably successful tools of soft power. In the report, the Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Hugo Swire MP, concurred with the ACU’s evidence. He added that alumni of those scholarship schemes ‘rise up in whatever sector of society – civil society, politics, sport or business’, a statement corroborated by data held by the ACU regarding Commonwealth scholarship alumni, which found that 45% of respondents had influenced government thinking in specific policy areas, with 25% having held public office.

The minister’s statement comes just days after the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne MP, announced in his 2014 Budget that the government will triple the number of Chevening scholarships from 2015-2016. The Select Committee felt that this extra funding would enable the UK to continue to attract the ‘brightest and best of the world’s future leaders’.

The report also said that research is a global undertaking, and noted the benefits to the UK of maintaining strong links with researchers all over the world.

‘Research cooperation exposes researchers (academic, commercial or government) to like-minded people from other cultures, building trust and personal networks that can reinforce bilateral relationships, as well as facilitating knowledge transfer’, the report said, quoting Dr Robin Niblett of Coventry University.

This view is consistent with the views held by the ACU’s Secretary General, Professor John Wood, who recently wrote of the ACU’s involvement in Research Data Alliance, a project that encourages the developing and sharing of research data across disciplines and national boundaries.

Appointed in May 2013, the House of Lords Select Committee on Soft Power and the UK’s Influence was tasked with examining the use of soft power in furthering the UK’s global influence and interests.

• Download the Report: Persuasion and Power in the Modern World (pdf)
• Read the ACU’s written evidence in full: Universities, scholarships and soft power (pdf)