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by Xophmeister
4492 days ago
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International students pay full fees here, whereas UK/EU students are subsidised somewhat. I don't know if international student fees are "central" to university budgets, in comparison with domestic fees and funding, but they're obviously very important. Increasingly so, in recent years, as domestic fees have gone up considerably, which has seen a decrease in home student numbers. Anyway, the bubble would burst when the decreasing value of a UK (or any) degree is overtaken by the increasing cost of it. Bear in mind that the cost of a degree isn't just the tuition; the cost of living is substantial in the UK (particularly in London) and that's making the option of studying here less and less attractive. |
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The Government did pay universities the "teaching grant" per home student, to top up the fees, but when tuition fees settled at £9k per year that number was chosen in order to eliminate most of the teaching grant[2], so assuming that universities were getting topped up to £9k per home student, foreign students were worth 2.5x the home ones.
I know for sure that the universities compete to get as many foreign students in as possible, which was why all the fuss when they revoked London Met's ability to give student visas - they were attacking their funding, basically.
[1] they have since tripled twice, although remember repayments are like a sort of tax (the government lends you the money in the first place, and you pay back 9% of your income above £15k).
[2] I think science students still get it and arts students don't, or something, because this government is insane.