Should international students carry on subsidising UK students?

Poll

Should international students carry on subsidising UK students?

While students fees in the UK are £9250 international students' tuition fees are £21-26000 per annum and are used to subsidise UK students. Many of the international students come from much poorer countries. Should this continue? Estimate by academics at Said Business School say that UK students should pay about £17000 to reflect the actual cost of the courses they are on. Also, what about the risk that they stop coming, and paying those high fees. It has been estimated that if that were to happen c.40% of all English universities could go out of business. However, at post-grad international students and UK students often pay the same amount.

Some see this as capitalism, but It should also be noted that English students subsidize UK students at English universities on very weak courses (through their taxes - paid during holiday work and placements), as they have a high dropout rate and, for those that do graduate they have a very low chance of paying back the loan they took out to do the course because their income is below the threshold. Universities offering such weak courses benefit because there is a belief that having a degree in any subject will open doors when in fact this far from true, as many find out when they graduate. However, at Post-graduate level International and UK students pay the same amount, so why not at undergraduate level?

(edited 6 months ago)

Reply 1

Clearing and Applications Advisor

That’s not the average international fee. There’s many UK universities charging ~£15k. Open University charges £7k.

No one is forced to study at a UK university. There are UK universities with more reasonable fees and non UK universities with lower or no fees.

UK students on undergraduate courses are also subsidised by the funding councils, UK postgraduates and other commercial activities offered by universities.