Top universities snub UK pupils ... to cash in on foreign students

TOP universities were labelled a ‘money-making racket’ last night amid evidence they are favouring wealthy foreigners over British A-level pupils.

It has emerged half of the elite Russell Group, which includes Oxford and Cambridge, have cut their intake of British undergraduates since 2008, despite a 17 per cent increase in applications.

But the number of non-EU students – who pay up to four times as much as their British and European counterparts – has soared by 39 per cent.

As more than 250,000 sixth-formers await their A-level results next week, thousands of overseas students are being fast tracked into universities such as Manchester, Durham and Exeter without having the equivalent qualification in their own country.

This is being driven by private companies which have struck deals with dozens of universities,

A lucrative industry has sprung up offering short ‘foundation courses’ lasting as little as six months and costing between £15,000 and £23,000.

One firm, INTO, offers a ‘guaranteed’ place to anyone who passes the course. The figures do not include EU students, who pay the same as Britons and qualify for tuition fee loans.

Former education minister Lord Adonis said British students were being discriminated against and described the finding as seriously alarming.

He said this was a ‘betrayal of the mission of some of our greatest universities’, adding: ‘Oxford and Cambridge, Imperial and the Russell Group should be widening access for more British young people, not turning them away.’

Chris McGovern, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, said: ‘Universities have increasingly become a racket and their central focus has become making money rather than on education.

‘We need to put our own country and own young people first, rather than favouring overseas students because they bring in more cash.

‘The education committee needs to have a look at this. Universities putting their own financial needs over the needs of the country need to be held to account.’ Latest available figures, analysed by the Sunday Times, show that between 2008/9 and 2015/16, 12 of the 24 Russell Group universities cut their intake of British undergraduates, while increasing the number of non-EU students.

Liverpool University saw the biggest increase in non-EU stu- dents, with 3,795 more attending while British entries fell by 550. Cambridge has cut the number of British undergraduates by 29 per cent while increasing non-EU students by 18 per cent.

The trend has also been seen in universities outside the Russell Group, such as Lancaster where British student numbers fell by 17 per cent while the non-EU intake soared by 137 per cent.

A spokesman for the Russell Group said it was ‘absolutely committed to ensuring talented UK students could access highquality higher education’.

INTO said its centres were approved by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education and by the universities.

A Department for Education spokesman said: ‘ Student admissions are a matter for individual universities as they are autonomous of government.’