why don't foreign students just study in their own country?

He didnt even come close to sounding racist.

He asked a legit question and got slaughtered for it.

working for a year won't pay for it i'm afraid seeing as the prices are going up

There's a ridiculous amount of competition over places, though. Students have to sit gruelling entrance exams, and as far as I know they're even penalised if they're from certain regions (i.e. if you're from a rural area you need a higher score for a place at a university in one of the big cities than if you're living in that city already). So if someone doesn't succeed in getting a place at one of the most prestigious Chinese universities, a foreign university with an internationally-known name is the next best thing, and if their parents can at all afford it, they'll consider it a worthwhile investment which will increase their child's chances of being successful in the future. Of course there'll also be lots of Chinese students whose parents can't stretch to the international fees, but we never get to see those, do we?

i'm just thinking if it costs so much then why would they want to? is english uni much better than in china or wherever

Well, I'm Italian and from next September 2011 I will come to study to Westminster in London as an EU student. I can say my personal reasons for coming to study to UK (but I think they will be similar to the reasons of other italians coming to UK to study):

- First, university Education is Britain seems infinitely better than Italian universities (I have been for a few years in two big Italian universities). In the universities near where I live in Italy I have to face very overcrowded classes (one time I had to sit down on the floor just outside the door together with a dozen of other students because the classroom, including the floor, was full), subjects totally theoretical and useless for the real world and inadequate universities facilities. And I had to face buildings spread at kilometers of distance between each other (we don't have university campuses in Italy and the buildings are often spread throughout the whole city).

- I would like to live in university halls together with other students. In italy, universities don't have student residences or student halls, so we are forced to live in private houses or in 80-85% of cases with your parents (as I and all my friends did in the last few years). I want to move away from my parents and living at least for the first year in student halls would be great.

- I would really like to live in a big multicultural city like London. The city where I live in Italy is one of the most boring and terrible city possible (with terrible public transport; while Londoners don't realize how lucky they are having tube and night buses, here in middle-sized Italian city buses and most public transport stop after 10-11 pm and they are quite inefficient). But this probably depends from the fact that I lived for 6 months in Australia (and I can't stand anymore Italy).

- (this is probably the most important reason) Many English universities offer, for the course I want to study, 1 full year of placement abroad (including 1 year of working or studying at my choice and I can even combine them and make 6 months of study and 6 months of working) abroad. Most Italian universities don't offer working placements at all, and the ones that offer them are 1 month of working placement at best. And nearly 90% of working placements are unpaid or are just ridiculous jobs.

- I would really like to study in a multicultural university with a lot of foreign students. In Italy this isn't possible because the percentage of foreign students is extremely low (from what I read a few weeks ago, the percentage of foreign student in Italian university is only 3% against the average of 20% of Great Britain). Personally in my two years of university in Italy in my ex-university I have met only 1 or 2 foreign students in all the courses I attended.

- Also studying, working and living in a foreign country looks really good in my resumè.

u get given more points if u r a minority or from rural locations

I'm all for foreigners living in england but i wonder why foreigners come here just to study? I mean it kind of pisses me off when british students can't get into competetive british university courses (e.g. medicine, dentistry) when foreigners are getting in?
What's so appealing about the UK and why not stay in your own country to study?

Hmm, fair enough, maybe I got it mixed up, then. It was in an article which I read over a year ago...
Still, even if the way in which points are distributed is completely fair and just, that won't change anything about the fact that competition for places is fierce and consequently lots of people lose out, no?

the problem is the majority of British students can't speak fluently in another language our language teaching in schools is so inferior to the rest of Europe

Why don't you get off your arse and get away from mummy by leaving the country, you douche?

Also, because we can afford to pay higher school fees, therefore injecting money into your economy.

I'm all for foreigners living in england but i wonder why foreigners come here just to study? I mean it kind of pisses me off when british students can't get into competetive british university courses (e.g. medicine, dentistry) when foreigners are getting in?
What's so appealing about the UK and why not stay in your own country to study?

Why don't you get off your arse and get away from mummy by leaving the country, you douche?

Also, because we can afford to pay higher school fees, therefore injecting money into your economy.

Not for tuition, no. Gov loans have to pay for that at first. But at least it would pay for everything else. Room, board stuff like that. Plus working in the holidays is possible too, so it will work out, I guess.

your country give you loans to study in other countries then? because i didn't think we gave loans to foreigners