By Lamisa Chowdhury and Vanessa Huang
Analysis from The Guardian has shown that approximately one-fifth of the income UK universities received over the 2021/22 academic year was from international students. This number is significantly higher at LSE, where 77% of the School’s £235m tuition income that year was from fees paid at the overseas rate, with international students making up 66% of the student population.
This growing dependence on international students has negative ramifications for both students and university funding models.
International students are currently used to cover the net loss universities face at the hands of domestic students’ fees. These domestic tuition fees have remained capped at £9,250 since 2017. Experts calculate that the real value of tuition for domestic students now amounts to a mere £6,000, meaning universities are almost £4,000 short in educating every British undergraduate.
International students’ tuition fees, which have no upper limit, are now being used to cover this shortfall. For international students completing courses like medicine, fees can reach approximately £40,000 a year. At LSE, the highest annual tuition fees are set at £26,592 for international undergraduates entering into the 2023/24 academic year.
Also contributing significant amounts to LSE’s tuition income are postgraduates, who made up 52% of the student population in 2021/22. At the highest rate of tuition, both domestic and international students completing an MSc in Finance can expect to pay £42,384 this year.
In a September report, the House of Lords described the current higher education funding system as “unsustainable” and stated that “geopolitical shifts,” particularly regarding the high proportion of students from China, could leave the sector vulnerable.
Ateeq Khaliq, an Economic History student, likens the treatment of international students to exploitation, identifying South Indian students in the North of England as a particularly high-risk group. “They’re constantly working to pay for university fees they’re not attending lectures for … They don’t have the time. This isn’t because they have an innate desire to work, but to survive.”
Universities face further financial uncertainty with home secretary Suella Braverman introducing a ban on international students bringing family with them to the UK, beginning from January, in a move to curb net migration. Jo Grady, general secretary of the University and College Union (UCU), stated the ban would be “damaging” to the “pipeline of international talent coming to the UK.”
