University Quotas

[Rememory]

Do universities have quotas as to how many Home, EU and International students they accept every year? If they do, is it made public?

Currently no, Not in my institution anyway. There is a goal as to how many we need to get in order to run programmes and meet our budgetary requirements. There used to be a government cap on numbers but that was lifted a few years ago, but due to be imposed again I think. This tends to be bases on entry grades received. You can find plenty of news stories by searching for university numbers cap.

You can find data from HESA, Higher Education Statistics Agency, on previous numbers.

There used to be quotas on home and EU students in the sense that the university would only be paid for x amount for home students and EU students by government funding. This ceased to exist a few years ago when the cap was removed. They have always been able to accept as many international students as they wanted as they were self funding. They didnt have to stick to the quota but they got no further money.

The juggling of admissions is a dark art mixed with science. Well it was when I was working in higher ed but I left about six years ago. Some of my friends are still admissions tutors though.

Thank you, very interesting. I wondered if universities were able to accept say 90% international students (to pay the bills) then 10% Home/EU students. Or if there was a governing body that stopped any 'discrimination' based on money.

Have friends kids from abroad getting offers in and it crossed my mind - no other reason for asking.

They do in Scotland, but the limits are on Scottish/EU students not students from the rest of the UK. It has resulted in a hierarchy of grades required and % offers made, it's hardest for EU followed by Scottish followed by rest of UK and easiest for international. There are stats available but I've only researched it for the university DS applied to.

Thank you, very interesting. I wondered if universities were able to accept say 90% international students (to pay the bills) then 10% Home/EU students. Or if there was a governing body that stopped any 'discrimination' based on money.

There's nothing that I'm aware of to stop Universities favouring international students, but there's more to consider than just money. Most Universities are very mindful of their position in the league tables, which brings a lot of other factors into play. Average entry requirement is one such consideration, so they wouldn't necessarily favour a lower-quality international student over a higher-quality domestic one. Social mobility is something else that Universities are rated on - international students are more likely to come from wealthy backgrounds, rather than be the first in their family to access Higher Education, for example.

Very few universities have so many international students that they can afford to turn away home ones! The simple fact is that the vast vast majority of applicants are home.

Scotland of course does have quotas.

Due to reduced quotas In Scotland, to get on a competitive course you often need 5As at Higher. In UCAS points this equates to 165 pts (3 x A star is 168 pts to compare) And this doesn't even include Advanced Highers!!