How Oxbridge is cashing in on foreign students

OXFORD and Cambridge are boosting their coffers by admitting hundreds of foreign students, figures show.

Despite pressure to take more UK pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds, the universities offered places to almost three times as many foreign students as poor British ones.

Almost 1,400 undergraduate students were recruited from abroad last year, compared to just 613 UK pupils from low-income homes.

Around 60 per cent of the overseas students were from non-EU countries – meaning the universities can charge much higher fees. While UK and EU undergraduates pay £9,000 a year, non-EU undergraduates at Oxford pay between £15,295 and £22,515, with an extra college fee of £7,135. At Cambridge, non-EU undergraduates pay between £15,816 and £38,283, with college fees of up to £7,980.

Higher education experts say foreign students have become crucial to make up budget shortfalls – raising fears British pupils could be squeezed out. Research last year found the number of students from abroad at Britain’s highest-ranking universities – including Oxbridge – had nearly doubled in a decade.

In 2014/15, Oxford took 263 undergraduates from homes with incomes of less than £16,000. The same year, it admitted 246 students from the EU and 370 from non-EU countries.

At Cambridge there were around 350 lowincome British students – compared with 310 EU students and 445 non-EU students, analysis from the New Schools Network showed.

A spokesman for Cambridge said it ‘works hard to raise aspirations among disadvantaged groups’, while Oxford said it ‘targets and supports numerous local state schools’.