UK VARSITIES FACE FUNDING ‘CRUNCH’ AS FOREIGN STUDENTS GO ELSEWHERE
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Due to visa limitations, UK universities, which are among the most prestigious in the world, are drawing fewer international students, which has a significant negative financial impact.
The limitations are making the issues brought on by the UK’s exit from the EU four years ago worse.
In a very competitive market, Britain became the second most popular destination after the US in 2022, with around 760,000 international students enrolled in British universities.
India is the most common country, followed by China and Nigeria.
However, there were 5% fewer student visas issued last year. Compared to the same period last year, the number of student visa applications fell by 16 percent between July and September.
The decline is a major cause of concern for higher education institutions since foreign students pay far more in fees than British students.
Leo Xui, 20 years old and from China, began studying population and health sciences at University College London in September.
“It’s good for my career,” he said of enrolling abroad. Thinking ahead to when he will return to China, he added: “I will be able to apply for a foreign company.”
He will be charged £31,000 (37,200 euros) for the academic year. Since 2017, British students enrolled in English universities have paid no more than £9,250.
Universities, who have been demanding an increase for years, applauded the Labour administration’s announcement last week that the ceiling would raise to £9,535 starting next year. The Labour government was elected in the summer.
At its September conference, Universities UK (UUK), which represents 141 institutions of higher learning in the United Kingdom, cautioned that funding per student is at its lowest level since 2004.
Due to inflation, the £9,250 charge is estimated to be worth less than £6,000, which results in teaching and research deficits.
“We are all feeling the crunch,” UUK president Sally Mapstone told the conference.
Universities have welcomed more foreign students in a bid to fill budget gaps, to the point where many are financially dependent on them.
According to a parliamentary report, foreign students make up more than half the student body at London’s University of the Arts and Cranfield University, a science and engineering institute just north of the British capital.
Earlier this year, the Financial Times reported that York and other institutions have relaxed their admissions requirements in an effort to draw in more international students.
However, in an attempt to lower record levels of ordinary migration, the previous Conservative government, which was overthrown in July, made the mission of the universities more difficult by placing restrictions on student visas.
It prohibited international students from transferring to work visas while they were studying and, with some circumstances, from bringing family members with them.
According to official figures, the number of applications from overseas decreased by 30,000 in the first four months of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023.
“These hard numbers confirm our fear that the previous government’s changes have made the UK a less attractive study destination,” said Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute think-tank.
Provost Ian Dunn of Coventry University, where more than a third of the 30,000 students are from overseas said the Tories’ “narrative was very destructive”.
The university had already been impacted by Brexit.
“We had 4,400 students from the European Union. Now we’re probably at 10 percent of that,” he said, adding that the situation was “difficult”.
A lecturer at another English university told AFP that teaching positions as well as courses had been cut.
“The drop in international students has dramatically worsened the crisis for us,” she said on condition of anonymity because she was not authorised to talk to the media.
“Some have preferred to go to Canada, Australia or the Netherlands, where courses are taught in English,” she added.
Coventry University may have found the answer by partnering with institutions overseas to open campuses in several countries, including Egypt, Morocco, India and China.
At the end of their studies, students may not have set foot in the UK but they still “obtain a degree from Coventry University”, said Dunn.
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