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

Brexit. We are taking more non-EU students into our unis because they need the money.

@CerealPosterHere whilst the fees are what they are , I'm not sure £300 a week ( which is what it equates too) for many students going in around 8 to 10 hours a week is great value. Obviously for things like medicine and similar it's probably a lot more but in many subjects contact hours are incredibly low - if I was doing an online course and it was £9k a year I would be expecting a lot more than what seems to be on offer at many of our unis- it seems nuts to me that it can be £9k at say Wolverhampton ( as an example- not specifically) and £9k at Oxford

A lot of overseas students, I believe, come from outside the EU, so Brexit isn't an issue.

For the record, my niece is looking at her college options in US (their colleges are our uni's effectively) and her fees will be in the region of 30k dollars per year.

Regardless of the reasons though, international students are a real asset to our higher education community.

Perhaps this depends on the university and the course?

Obviously it's about the money. Home student fees are capped but international students fees are not. International students have been subsidising home students and keeping universities afloat but now they are less inclined to come here, many universities are going to go bankrupt..

Any evidence for that?

Whole it's true for a small few, working in a university, I can say that a lot of our international students are much better at spag than some home students.

It’s rich in assets but it can’t very well sell off its buildings and the upkeep must be in the millions.

Because international student numbers have tanked thanks to covid, cuts of living and unfavourable government policies.
Many universities made financial projections and investments based on the number of international students increasing or at least remaining stable.

But they've tanked....

Plus uk fees don't cover the cost of running a degree programme.

Just wanted to clarify another misconception. Universities are charitable foundations. We have been unprofitable for some time, but in case there are profits, they go back into the pot to improve our service.

They don't unfortunately. The visa changes made by the previous government in a last ditch attempt to reduce immigration numbers at any cost (even though students are 'good' immigrants as they pay huge amounts of money to be here and take nothing off the state) saw an almost immediate and sustained drop in the number of international students applying to UK universites. The current government has intimated they have no plans to change this policy. This is aslo set against a background of already declining numbers in overseas students as universtities in e.g. China and India are getting better and better and retaining more of their own students.

This is a large part of what is driving the financial woes that the majority of universities currently find themselves in. (Alongside ever increasing pay, pension and National Insurance costs, the high rate of inflation, and the freeze on home tuition fees.)

Yes, but do you suggest they start selling off so that they can accept more UK students?

I think any uni regardless of their wealth needs international students. You can't run a business at a loss year after year and keep dipping into ever dwindling savings. It's not sustainable. I'll blame the low uni fees for home students which have not kept pace with rising costs.

That’s how they get wealthy. Obviously.

Hi. I am an academic at a top tier. This is a common misconception. We simply take whomever is the best and can achieve their best with our style of teaching, which is unique and can be hard or incompatible for some. Our admissions process is long, complicated, involves multiple panels, and there is no step in the process that looks into finances a student will bring. There is no prioritisation of international students. If anything, when we see similar abilities, we try our best to balance nationalities, demographic backgrounds, individual circumstances. Students cost the same - the only difference is we get subsidies for home students but not for overseas. That is why they need to pay more. Hope this helps.

Anyway, OP, I think the answer to your question is mainly 'sour grapes'. I assume you're taking about not getting an undergrsd place, so the postgrad numbers are a bit of a red herring. The Cambridge admissions stats are all readily available if you want to look at acceptance rates of U.K. vs other nationalities.

Only the government can raise fees for uk students.

For the money

If the unis are receiving the annual fees up front from domestic students too, what's the explanation for receiving 3 times as much money in the last 14 years but far more seem in large deficits ? Were they state funded before then and now are not?

Out of interest my friend did a 12 month part time contract at a top end uni and was quite shocked at the sheer amount of jobs that to her seemed totally unnecessary and had very little work to actually do ( including her own) and the amount of sickness and general laissez faire attitudes. I don't expect much sympathy as no doubt plenty of mumsnetters have jobs in the sector - if you do, be honest do you think they are well managed fiscally because my friend definitely didn't think so having always worked in the private sector. She was quite shocked.

The reason I question this is because it's clear that the international student thing seems very much about the grab for higher fees and why is it that despite significantly higher fees all round there are huge deficits-? I'm genuinely curious as I haven't worked in the sector and am only going on what she mentioned to me -

Money. The government doesn't fund universities to an adequate level to enable them to go anything different. When our universities slip down the international league tables they'll be scratching their heads wondering why.

My father is a professor of Chemistry,

This, in a nutshell.

In the current climate international students are not taking the places of uk students.
There is more than enough room for both.

I believe the bulk of international students are
postgraduate not undergraduate. I left a postgraduate course because there we're so many young American and only a handful of other uk students (prestigious London university) and I gave a workshop at a uk university for postgraduate students and only one was English and the rest were from the far east and only one seemed to speak fluent English!!!! The Chinese are a massive presence - I think they see the uk as a sort of prestigious finishing school. My friend who works in admissions says their English is often very poor.
yes all about the money to the detriment of a long lasting community of home grown students (great to have an international course but no real chance of making long lasting friends who will stick around)

Depending on the subject, internationals are likely to be stronger both on paper and at interview. Maths, engineering, foreign languages for example. The want to take the best of the best; they don’t care where they’re from.