Foreign students funding

[SuperSue77]

Can international students studying at UK unis get loans from UK govt for their funding? I had assumed they had to pay upfront, but something I have seen on social media suggests otherwise.

No they can't, and they pay much higher fees as well. They basically subsidise UK students.

Before Brexit, the EU students were able to get the UK loans and the rest of the world was paying as "oversees". Now all have to pay the higher rate tuition fees upfront and their life expenses.

Some international students have loans/grants/funding from their own goverments/local charities/philantropists.

Thanks for the responses - I thought this was the case but I saw a Facebook post by an ex-MP who was saying that ‘foreign students’ get their degrees and then go back to their home countries and don’t pay back the tuition fees. He was saying that his company, that he calls a political party, would outlaw this - but I didn’t think it was something that happened now anyway! I suppose I should have known it was a lie given he has form for it - never let’s the truth get in the way of his agenda.

No. It's just another way to demonise international students, who subsidise British students.

The nice explanation would be that he hasn't noticed the change after Brexit.
The other is, that he doesn't care about the truth.

There might be some edge cases, like students allowed to pay the university in installments and missing some - but afaik in that case the university won't issue the degree until the debt is cleared. In any case, that would be between the student and the univeristy, no UK goverment loans involved.

If the foreign students stayed and got jobs, he would have an issue with that too. They are fucking off home because of the hostile climate, having propped up our unis by paying double the fees, and still demonised.

International students can sometimes win scholarships that pay a part of their fees. My son is classed as an "international" student as an undergraduate because we were living abroad for a long time before he applied and we didn't qualify for lots of special reasons, for home fees. He is eligible for about 10K in scholarships each year, but has yet to receive one.

Some courses offer a bursary (eg some education courses but these have also been restricted this year) but fees have to be paid directly ie no government loan such as student finance.

Overseas students pay higher course fees which are all self-funded.

One thing I've wondered about is that since home fees are determined by residence rather than citizenship or legal status, can't overseas parents send their kids to UK boarding schools for three years for them to be eligible for home fees?

No. They do not satisfy the " main purpose' test.

Even if it were allowed (which it isn't), the cost of this would wipe out any reduction in fees (and actually cost more than the international student fees).

International students pay three times what home students pay.
Why do you think that many universities ‘reserve ‘ places for International students ?
LSE is a prime example .

I was on one of these courses as a foreign student. I didn’t get the bursary that all of my British peers got. I also didn’t get student finance—I had to take out a student loan in my home country.

Yes they can do this. But they also need to have some form of residence in the uk whether it is a home owned by the parents, or grandparents.

There are a few loopholes to the residency requirements. But you have to be able to prove them.

No they can't but a proportion of EU students did used to do this before Brexit.

I think the OP is referring to this.

”Rules set by the Student Loans Company, which administers loans for students studying in the UK, allow non-British students to borrow tens of thousands of pounds if they have settled status and lived in Britain for at least three years before they started university.”

Revealed: The £4bn a year bill for foreign student loans

www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/revealed-4bn-annual-cost-of-loans-to-foreign-students/

Thank you for posting the link just above, @Elbowpatch . Unfortunately the article is behind a paywall.

The phrase ‘settled status’ is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. It refers to people who are permanent residents of the UK under the EU Settlement Scheme or who have Indefinite Leave to Remain. In both cases it is intended that such people should have all the rights of citizens except the right to vote. In neither case are they likely to be flitting back to their countries of origin.

As immigrants overall make a positive net contribution of about £3Bn pa to the British economy, there is no reason to suppose that the settled ones are a particular drag on the student finance system (in the absence of proper data).

I suspect the politician in question belongs to one of the political parties (or perhaps there is only one of them) wishing to revoke nearly all possibilities for settlement in the UK.

@poetryandwine That is strange. It isn’t for me.

Well I could access it if I wanted to sign up for a free trial of the Telegraph! I don’t.

Interesting. All I get is the usual cookie pop-up. I haven’t had to sign up for anything.

If you are able to pass it along or to summarise it, I would be grateful. TIA

I hope this is worth it!

Foreign nationals are borrowing £4bn a year in student loans amid rising anger at the cost of university education, The Telegraph can reveal.
The cost of lending to students who are not from Britain or the EU has ballooned by 40pc since 2021-22.
Data obtained through a Freedom of Information request submitted by Telegraph Money shows the cost of loans for students who are non-UK nationals was more than £4bn in 2024-25, up from £3.2bn in 2021-22.
MPs have called for student loans to be restricted to British students, with Richard Tice, deputy leader of Reform UK, describing the scale of payments to foreign students as “madness”.

“We should not be providing any student loans for foreign nationals,” he said, adding that restricting loans to British nationals would “save billions”.
Only 56pc of loans taken out by all full-time undergraduates in 2024-25, including British nationals, are expected to be repaid in full, according to official projections.
In December, The Telegraph revealed how EU students currently owe more than £5bn in unpaid loans. Student loans are wiped after 30 years for those who started university before 2023. After this date, loans expire after 40 years.
It comes amid a growing outcry over the cost of student debtrepayments for graduates, driven by inflation-busting interest rates and shifting repayment terms that would not be allowed for conventional bank loans.
Rules set by the Student Loans Company, which administers loans for students studying in the UK, allow non-British students to borrow tens of thousands of pounds if they have settled status and lived in Britain for at least three years before they started university.

Loan repayments are not due until graduates begin earning salaries above a certain threshold, set at £28,470 for Plan 2 loans taken out between 2012 and 2023.
Student loans are funded from the public purse, meaning taxpayers foot the bill for debt that does not get repaid.
Dame Harriett Baldwin, the shadow business minister, said: “If Rachel Reeves had any interest in finding savings in public spending instead of just taxing businesses and people more, this would be a good place to look.”
Bob Blackman, a senior Conservative MP, said: “We must prioritise home students. Foreign students should not be eligible for loans. We welcome foreign students, but they must be able to pay their way.”
The figures cover tuition and maintenance loans to undergraduates studying part-time and full-time, as well as postgraduates who have taken out master’s and doctoral loans for England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The amount of money paid to students who are not from the UK or the EU has risen dramatically in the past four years.
Students who are not British nationals or EU nationals domiciled in the EU were loaned a total of £2.8bn in 2021-22 and £3.9bn last year, an increase of approximately 40pc.

At the same time, EU students domiciled in the EU have borrowed less from Britain’s taxpayers to go to university in the UK since rule changes brought in as part of the Brexit reforms.
They were loaned £415m in 2021-22 for higher education courses in the UK, falling to £110m last year – a decrease of 73pc.
This is because, before 2021, students from the EU were able to apply for a tuition fee loan to study in Britain. However, they must now have pre-settled status and meet the minimum three-year residency requirement to receive the funding.
A government spokesman said: “Anyone applying for any student support must have settled status or a recognised connection to the UK, targeting resources on students who are likely to contribute to the economy.
“Where we find abuse, we will stop at nothing to protect public money. Any misuse of student loans is an insult to hard-working students striving for better opportunities.
“We have set out ambitious reforms to strengthen the Office for Students’ powers to tackle fraud in higher education, while the new International Student Levy will fund the reintroduction of targeted maintenance grants for the most disadvantaged domestic students.”

Who reads the Telegraph? Tories, 60% male retirees.

No they dont get loans

And, presumably, people who post on the OP’s social media.

Of course, they could be Tories and 60% male retirees.