Why do our most prestigious and wealthiest Unis accept so many international students ?

an endowment of around 8 billion would at 4% provide a passive income of around 320 million. Taking say another 10% = 300 foreign students, instead of domestic ones would bring in an extra 25,000 per student or 7.5 million. It's pocket money compared to income from the endowment.
Imperial, UCL and others are taking 60% overseas because they have to - they have no comparable endowment. Oxford and Cambridge are rich enough to choose how many they take. Taking e.g. 25% is a choice, not a necessity.

Do works at uni and he says they all want the international students as they pay more

Depends on the subject. I have B2 German and I think I would be able to study Maths for example, but not Philosophy. I certainly can read fiction though.

This is why the government is tightening up student Visas.

Because successive govs starved HE and research of funding and it's the only way they could survive. Plus the pension fund is unmanageable.

DC1 has just graduated from Imperial. Also massive number (30%?) of international students, with the majority being from China. Imperial is clearly rolling in cash and lavishes it on the students. DC1 had jobs at the uni for up to £17/hour and also was given a grant of 2k a year because our income was under £60k.

I am personally not convinced that imperial needs the money from the international students. I wouldn't be surprised if they get much more money from consulting services, especially in computing.

One thing I would say is that DC1 always said they were massively behind all the international students, especially in maths, even though DC1 did 4 A Levels, all with Astar. From what DC1 was saying, the A Level equivalent abroad is a far higher standard. So maybe part of the reason for top universities having international students is due to their quality?

I also think that Oxbridge and Imperial are top ranking universities worldwide, so students want to come for the prestige. Also it helps that the teaching language is English - everyone learns English.

The CEFR (used to assess a student's level of language proficiency, for those who don't know) isn't a sound measure. All it does is show the a student has reached a particular level academically. That's very different from being immersed in a language for hours every day and having active language skills capable of responding fluently to any ituation that occurs. It's unfair on domestic students whose learning is impeded by international students not fluent in English.

Ok, graduate admissions stats
www.postgraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/sites/default/files/pg_admissions_statistics_2023-2024_0.pdf

If I understand it correctly, the Oxbridge graduates don't follow with masters, because they get it automatically in a few years. And in general, the interest in masters degree in the UK is relatively low, while for the international students it is the second chance to get the UK education from well known school.*

It says the UK students are only 17% od applications, but 33% of admissions.

The nationalities table looks very differently for applicants, but quite similar for accepted students.

* In my EU country, university education is free (for students able to study in local language), so it makes sense to get the bachelor degree locally and try shorter masters abroad.

I run meetings with students and regularly have to get interpreters in as the students have no idea what I am saying.

@Kindling1970 do the students have to pay for the interpreters?

It's far harder to get into Oxford or Cambridge as an undergraduate from overseas than from the UK. This is quite right: our oldest universities are there to educate the UK élite. However, some very brilliant overseas students add to the intellectual mix and since they pay handsomely for the privilege, it's win-win for everyone.

@LolaPeony thank you for answering my question.

UK government funding for universities has been slashed to the bone. Having international students is the only way to keep afloat.

As for Oxbridge, their day to day funding has also been cut and like any rich asset owner, they refuse to sell off capital to fund daily expenditure.

Reducing numbers of international students would likely lead to a reduction in places for uk students as universities would have to cut more departments/courses to remain viable.

Loads of postgraduate degrees are 100% coursework-based now, so no.

Once onto the degree of their choice, they pay students with better English or tutors (private / outside the uni system) to teach them in their native language and assist them with coursework that must be completed in English.

Do they not have to do written exams in a hall with an invigilator? Or does that not happen any longer? (I’m showing my age).

Money. Why else? Their income per UK student hasn't gone up since fees started, what's inflation in that time?

I really feel for students who graduate with debts of c.£50,000 from lower tariff universities. It does feel like they are being ripped off when they are paying the same as Oxbridge/Russell Group for an inferior experience. The contact hours argument is tricky. Arts and humanities subjects require intensive reading so high contact hours would not be welcome for most students.

The answer to your question is because overseas students are charged significantly more in fees so they make more profit from them.

Universities need a huge overhaul. They offer way to many pointless courses and variations of courses which are nonsensically niche.

Tell your son's dad to stop whinging? The son failed to get in. Many student's apply and fail to get into Oxbridge....because they were considered not good enough. Lots of other students get into Oxbridge becauae they WERE considered good enough. The higher the number of international students the higher the number of home that can be subsidised.

So tell your son's dad that nobody owes your son anything. Thanks.

It’s because international students massively subsidise local students. When I was in med school, my fees were about x5 more than my friends who paid between £2000-3000 a year. When I moved to my clinical years, I paid around £25,000 a year. What the local students paid didn’t even touch the sides. I don’t know about other degrees, but training a doctor is very expensive. Most international students also need higher grades to enter for the same subjects - I needed 3A’s back in 2005 for medicine but local students in my year group only needed 2A’s and a B so we’re not exactly buying our way in.

But it’s much harder for those students to stay afterwards, which is why it’s less attractive for many (apart from the super academic high flyers who can be sure of finding the sponsorship they need).

An Indian student can do a one year masters in the UK on a student visa, then transfer onto the two year graduate visa, hopefully find a sponsored job within the first year, and then it’s five years to permanent residency and another year for citizenship.

Postgraduate (H1B) work visas for international students are capped in the US - not everyone gets one. And there’s a far longer and less certain path to permanent status and eventually citizenship.

That same Indian student who could feasibly get UK citizenship within 8 years of arriving in the UK would be waiting decades for a green card in the US, and the whole time they’d be at risk of deportation if they ever got made redundant and couldn’t find a new position within something like 60 days.

Money not Monday!

We might think tuition fees sound expensive but apart from rising very slightly from £9,000 to £9,250 fees didn't go up since 2012, apart from the recently announced changes. So this £9000 in 2012 Monday is now worth about £6000 in today's money. In that time the cost of everything has ballooned - whole salaries in FE are still woeful they've had to go up a bit along with the cost of everything. It's rubbish but unis are really cash strapped (not opening the can of worms which is VC pay) which is why they're cutting back on courses. They can charge more for trendy courses like business studies masters degrees which attract more international students than humanities degrees will.

Compared to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford etc., Oxford and Cambridge have very small endowments so of course money is also a consideration (and the elite American US universities would happily continue to accept international students even if the UK decided to become ever more parochial).

It's a bit more complicated than that. Two thirds of universities are in financial difficulties, with redundanies for academic staff and departments closing. That means fewer places overall and less choice for those who want to study subjects like music, modern foreign languages, archaeology and classics.