Britain risks throttling university golden goose
Foreign students bring in billions to fund education. Curbs on their numbers would be a huge mistake
Anyone who is surprised to find British universities have been busy stuffing their lecture halls with foreign students clearly hasn’t been paying attention to the slowmotion car crash in education funding. The crisis provides a perfect example of obfuscation, misdirection, and how short-term fiscal gains can often create long-term problems.
The UK currently boasts four universities in the world’s top 10 and 17 in the top 100, according to the QS rankings. Only the United States has greater academic clout. But for how much longer?
Higher education, one of the UK’S last redoubts of excellence, is in many places close to the point of collapse. When the Blair government introduced tuition fees it effectively asked graduates to shoulder some of the cost of their education. The coalition government then shifted the majority of the burden on to students. Later governments have been reluctant to ask either taxpayers or undergraduates to cough up more even as costs have risen. Universities, lacking the stomach to pick an argument, blundered into the even more fraught issue of immigration.
A Sunday Times investigation now suggests UK universities are lowering entry requirements for international students. This appears to be backed up by a separate report by the Financial
Times showing non-eu students have been achieving worse grades than British counterparts and are twice as likely to get a 2:2 or third-class degree.
Separately, Lord Johnson, the former universities minister, has warned higher education institutions to crack down on “fraudulent” applications from global students who subsequently drop out of courses early or turn up without sufficient funds to support themselves. At a conference organised by Universities UK last October, Johnson warned of mounting fears within government that some universities are “selling immigration ... rather than education”.
Clearly, something is badly awry. And no doubt there are abuses of the student visa system. Nevertheless, the rise in foreign students is a symptom of a much deeper malaise in the sector.
Under the coalition, the tuition fee cap shot up from £3,225 to £9,000 in 2010. However, it has barely budged since and currently stands at £9,200. Had fees merely kept pace with inflation they would now be around £14,000, according to Bloomberg. Also, research and teaching grants are falling as a percentage of income.
The upshot is that English universities (naturally Scotland does things slightly differently) are making a loss of roughly £2,500 for every domestic student they educate, according to the Russell Group. This is expected to rise to £5,000 by the end of the decade. Universities have met this deficit by leaning on the uncapped fees of international students. Last year, Vivienne Stern, of the industry group Universities UK, told a House of Lords committee that fees paid by foreign students “should be the cherry on the cake” but have become “more like the flour”. Now politicians, under pressure to bring down legal as well as illegal immigration, look likely to tell vice-chancellors to go gluten-free.
Last May, the Government said it would close a loophole allowing students to switch to work visas before their studies have been completed. And from this coming academic year most students coming from overseas will not be allowed to bring their dependants with them to the UK.
It seems unlikely that will be the end of matters. However, were politicians able to raise their eyes beyond our borders they’d see quite how selfdefeating this all is. The world is currently engaged in something of an education arms race. Other countries are opening the doors to international students. In Canada, years of study now count towards years of residency.
We should probably pause to ask ourselves if it is wise to take the exact opposite approach, especially as international students provided £42bn in economic benefits to the UK in the 2021-22 academic year, according to the Higher Education Policy Institute.
Capping foreign student numbers would clearly lead to universities having to cut costs. Undoubtedly, there’s some flab in the system (and those vice-chancellors who have enjoyed quite hefty pay rises in recent years aren’t doing their cause much good). However, many universities already operate on pretty thin margins.
Meaningful savings can only come from hiring fewer people, increasing student-staff ratios and, the big one, cutting research. It’s hard to see how this wouldn’t result in a worse student experience and British universities sliding down the global rankings.
What then will become of the UK’S ambitions in life science, artificial intelligence, space technology and a whole host of other sectors? What’s the alternative? Index-linking the cap in tuition fees to inflation is a complete no-brainer. Removing foreign students from the net immigration numbers (combined with a crackdown on those abusing the system) also makes sense given the vast majority leave the UK when their course is over.
Undoubtedly, some students would benefit from being guided towards vocational training rather than degrees of questionable value. Judicious pruning in the sector, through the consolidation of struggling institutions, might promote healthier growth.
Ultimately, however, there needs to be a recognition that the UK’S universities are both a public and private good, benefiting the economy and society as well as graduates. The funding should therefore be spread between both students and the state.
However, the wait for a proper debate about where the exact balance lies may be a long one.
‘Were politicians able to raise their eyes beyond our borders, they’d see quite how self-defeating this is’