International student fees 'overpriced'

mzqa395

[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif] Anthea Lipsett
Thursday July 12, 2007
EducationGuardian.co.uk

[/FONT] The UK is in danger of losing precious international students by universities pricing themselves out of the market, the Higher Education Policy Institute warned today.According to Hepi's latest report on the economic benefits of international students, the UK's market share of such students is still second only to the US, but it dropped to around 11% in 2004 from 16% in 1998.
Bahram Bekhradnia, director of Hepi, told EducationGuardian.co.uk: "There is a real possibility that we may price ourselves out of the market - last year's Hepi survey of the student experience showed that over 25% of overseas students think they get poor value for money.
"It could well be in the national interest to lower the fee charged of overseas students, in order to maximise their number."
While the actual number of international students in the UK is increasing overall, the report said universities should not presume this would continue.
As other countries begin to teach in English and market themselves more aggressively, and students get better information to compare the value for money of courses "it is quite possible that UK universities will begin to struggle to maintain numbers while charging the sorts of prices that are charged at present", the report warns.
Hepi argues for the government to subsidise international students to maximise their numbers and "provide the greatest benefit to the country as a whole, looking beyond the narrow interests of universities".
And the report advocates maximising the number of EU students despite the cost to the government and taxpayer of subsidising them. "There may be a cost to public expenditure, but the overall economic gain is substantial, and will be so even if all EU students were to default on the repayment of their loans," the report says.
In 2004-05 there were 218,395 students from outside the EU, made up of 82,095 full-time undergraduates, 85,605 full-time postgraduates, 16,320 part-time undergraduates and 34,375 part-time postgraduates.
On average, international students paid £6,868 in tuition fees and £187.57 a week in living costs. Hepi estimates that international students "injected" £2.35bn into the UK in 2004-05.
The research found that both EU and non-EU students produce substantially more, financially, than they consume. And they provide other "substantial and real non-financial benefits" - such as helping to create multicultural learning environments, and the goodwill the UK derives from having significant numbers of graduates from UK universities in leadership positions overseas.
Mr Bekhradnia said: "This report looks only at the very substantial economic benefits of international students - the full benefits, of course, go far wider.
"They include not only the fees that students pay and their living expenses, but the contribution to GDP that comes from the fact that a substantial number stay on and work after they have graduated - and they are highly skilled people often undertaking difficult to fill jobs.
"The students bring considerable benefit to the economy, not just to the universities that receive their fees. So it is worth maximising the number of them."
However, the minister for higher education, Bill Rammell, denied that there were pricing issues with the current system.
"We have a world class system of higher education which is attractive to overseas students who not only make a valuable financial contribution to the UK higher education sector and economy but also bring other cultural, research, trade and diplomatic and benefits. The current system works well and we have no plans to change it.
"Institutions are free to set their own fee rates for overseas' students and to respond to market changes which reflect demand for new subjects, and ways of studying and learning."

http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,2124637,00.html

Torby

and your point is?....

mzqa395

UK University should decresase the tution fees and give more support to international students. Othrwise more and more students will go to America.

melancholly

i guess the real point is that 'home' students should also cost that much but are heavily subsidised too! i'm personally slightly uncomfortable with the idea of paying for the costs of study for international students too - we can barely cover the home students! maybe selfishly, i don't see how encouraging more people to get degrees to enter the UK job market can be positive - anyone trying to get a graduate job nowadays knows how competitive it is already!!

with things happening like nottingham openning campuses in China and Malaysia, i don't think we're in any danger of people stopping coming to the UK anyway. a top US university could cost $40,000 a year - maybe the real problem is that the pound is so strong that the UK isn't that much cheaper than the US anymore.

SlyOne_2

I'm not sure the current international student trends have much to do with student fees to be honest. International students have been used to paying the full actual cost of their studies in the UK, ever since the Thatcher years.

What is probably deterring them from the UK is perhaps a combination of the current political climate, poor prospects after graduation (for most), and limited support to carry on with their studies. There are probably much greener pastures out there - especially post-graduation. Canada and Australia spring to mind as two very viable options, a trend that will accrue with the increasing immigration issues in the UK, especially with asylum seekers.