Starmer's parting shot is to give EU students a £30k discount of their uni fees.

[caringcarer]

This is a kick in the teeth to our own students. If he has money to discount off uni fees for students he should discount our own students. It's an outrage.

Ah yes, because that was the case before Brexit ... UK Unis packed with EU students, and British students couldn't get a place for love nor money! Except, curiously, me and all my friends, who started uni in 2013/14, and mysteriously were able to find places. You sound like you don't know the first thing about how universities operate.

I work in academia, so I'm pretty aware of the financial problems universities are facing in the UK.
One of the issues (and there are many) is that tuition fees for UK students were frozen for years, so universities couldn't charge higher fees to keep up with rising costs.

UK universities rely on student fee income. Yes, international fees are better, but discounted fees are still far better than no fees at all.

There are too many universities and courses in the UK, and not enough students.

I guess you would prefer it if half the universities closed down and all their employees lost their jobs, so you could have one national UK university system.

@Annie630 does that mean that you think the architects of Brexit were focussed on the futures of our young people? I can find no sensible economist who thinks we have benefitted economically from Brexit and given that we have the highest number of NEETS and unemployed graduates than we've had in years at the moment, I think that there is much to be done to improve the lot for the under 25s in this country.

As far as I can tell a return to free movement of young people across European borders and economies would only benefit those from the UK, as they could look to study and work in countries nearby with better performing economies than ours currently is.

Any return of EU students to UK universities will be negotiated as part of a much broader agreement. It is not going to be a "stand alone" deal, specifically designed to shaft youngsters from the UK. These kind of articles from the Express are designed to whip up fear and hatred of everything European again.

This entire thread is redundant because @caringcarer has based it on an Express article that spun the info contained in a Daily Telegraph article to suit its Brexit agenda.

Excerpt from the Telegraph article.

The Telegraph understands that the Prime Minister only agreed to discuss the costs of higher education on the basis that the EU meets his demands for a wider future economic package beyond what is already on the table.
Whitehall sources acknowledged that university tuition fees for EU students were discussed in Sir Keir’s meetings, but denied that he had offered them as a concession to Brussels.
After their talks, the trio revealed they would hold an official gathering in Belgium on July 22.

Nothing has been agreed but a decision to discuss fees as part of a wider economic package.
We need to stop what is essentially speculation and wait for the decisions to be announced.

Oh for God's sake.

I wonder if this behaviour by the press and people on SM is why Burnham didn't take questions the other day. His answers would have been spun out of all recognition.

Thanks @logicisall for clearing things up.

Perhaps this will save some of our universities from going under.

What do you mean? There isn't enough enrolment as it is.If you're worried that youngsters won't get in (the entry requirements are already not particularly high), maybe they should study harder. If you study, you'll have a place at university.
The problem is a shortage of student enrolment, not a shortage of university places.

Sure if there is an influx. The danger is the numbers stay the same and the income halves 🤷‍♀️

That is true as far as it goes, but once students from the US, India and China see that EU students, while still "international", are getting a better deal in the UK, there would be huge legal challenges to this special treatment - either we get the same reduction as EU since we are the same fees category, or all international students pay the full whack.

Why should they pay the same as domestic students.?

EYE ROLL back at you

Maybe, I’d be interested to know more. You could be right idk

As you pointed out, they still can.

In Scotland we had a similar thing with Greece. Not one of us studied in Greece as it is taught in Greek. However half my year was from Greece! For free in Scotland!

A travesty and a total waste of Scottish money. To Greek kids.

I cannot believe people think we will ever rejoin the EU.
Other countries are desperate to leave ot!

Universities reckon they make (on average) a loss on domestic students. So I just struggle to see how forcing HE to accept more loss making students is going to help a sector in crisis.

I don’t know of any other “industry “ where they are treated as independent businesses in many respects but the government decides how much they can charge for their “product”.

What if Ford says it costs 11k to make a Fiesta but the government tell them they can only sell it for 10k? We would think that was bonkers and we wouldn’t be surprised if Ford either stopped making Fiestas or went bust.

Many of the courses should be shut down.

UK universities rely on student fee income. Yes, international fees are better, but discounted fees are still far better than no fees at all.

Many universities claim they run a deficit on each domestic student - how can that be better if they charge EU students the same as domestic students?

You do not know what will happen. Your entire post is a guess.

I worked in consulting in London before Brexit. My colleagues were: Greek, Hungarian, English, Nigerian, French and NZ. The Europeans all studied in England, and the Nigerian.

I also quoted Express article too.

There is no shortage of university places. There will continue to be no shortage of university places.

Exactly.

Yes how can more of anything at a deficit work better financially?

No there won’t. Differential fees are legal, and if this does go ahead it’ll be done perfectly legally.

Do you think Indian students are challenging the fact that they need visas to study in France and Spanish people don’t? Same thing. Perfectly ok for domicile to determine fees, freedom of travel etc.

lol @JulietteHasAGun that's so funny because Ford has stopped making Fiestas because they sold them at a loss!

It’s not a guess. The number of overseas students HAS declined. The number of EU students plummeted once fees rose to international levels. Even if fees went back to domestic levels, numbers are unlikely to go back to previous levels because post-study restrictions are much tighter now.

If you’re a consultant are you not familiar with using data from the past to scenario plan?