Overseas students in the UK

A recently released study revealed a remarkable increase in the number of overseas students enrolling at universities in the UK. In fact, the number has more than doubled since the mid 1990s. What has led to this huge rise, and what impact is it having on university education in the UK? Radio Prague’s Ian Willoughby has been finding out.

The London School of Economics is located in the centre of the British capital. Here a whopping 40 percent of students are from outside the European Union. In fact, they have students from 140 countries around the world. While the LSE has a higher percentage of overseas students than any other British university, their impact is being felt across the UK.

“Overseas students from outside the UK have been coming to the UK for a long period from a variety of parts of the world. The largest single area of recruitment is the Far-East, which China having grown massively in the last five or six years.”

says Professor Geoffrey Crossick of Universities UK, the body which represents British universities. He headed a team which recently brought out a report saying the number of overseas students in the UK has more than doubled in the last decade. In 2005 there were 210,000 non-EU international students in Britain. What brings them here?

“I think we need to look at two factors. One is why students are travelling abroad for education generally, and secondly why they’re coming to the UK. There’s been an enormous interest in what we call trans-national education. Students are moving around the world in much larger numbers than ever before, for their education. The reason why they’re coming to the UK in ever increasing numbers is because of the very high quality of education at UK universities. When we talk about post-graduate students and research students, then it’s the international research quality of UK universities that is so important. We are by all measures second only to the United States, in the quality of research done in British universities.”

Just down the street from the offices of Universities UK is the University of London, where Ronald Barnett is professor of higher education. He offers further explanations for the boom.

“Universities in the UK are fortunate in that their primary language of instruction is English, which is fast becoming the international language of commerce and business and professional life. There are other reasons as well. The UK does have an international reputation for fairness and justice, and openness.”

Whatever the reasons, the growth in overseas students has not been accidental. Professor Crossick of Universities UK again.

“There was a time once when the recruitment happened almost by chance – that long ago changed. For the last ten to 15 years UK universities, the same as those in many other parts of the world, have been actively recruiting students, for a variety of reasons. And this has been added to by the prime minister’s initiative – the prime minister, Tony Blair, has taken a strong interest in overseas recruitment, seeing it as in many ways beneficial to UK universities and the UK in general.”

Indeed, some believe British universities have become financially reliant on overseas students. Higher education expert Ronald Barnett outlines just how important they are.

“It certainly is worth several hundreds of millions of pounds to the higher education sector as a whole. Many institutions would be looking to have recruitment of international students running at around 20 percent or so. To put it in financial terms that represents a considerable income flow to institutions.”

But what about the students themselves? What is their experience of studying in the UK? Back at the London School of Economics I spoke to Sarwat and Metash, who are from Bangladesh.

Metash: “I think the UK university system is really fascinating and I’ve always had this dream of getting education abroad. I did my undergrad here and I’m doing my masters right now. I think it’s gives you a lot.”
Sarwat: “I’ve come from Bangladesh, where I did my masters. Now I’m doing my second masters here. The LSE is the second in social science in the world, so I always wanted to study here.”

How has the experience been of studying here in the UK?

Metash: “Fascinating so far.”
Sarwat: “Really good, really good.”

And what about the fees? How are the fees for overseas students compared to EU students?

Metash: “I think at masters level it’s more or less the same but for undergrad it’s a rip-off, because I was paying ten times more than the EU or the local students. But at the masters level I think it sort of balances out.”
Sarwat: “I don’t have much experience of undergrad, but for postgrad there is a good 4000-pound difference. I’m paying 12,500 and an EU student will pay around 8,000. That’s quite a lot because…we are getting the same education, they are not getting any less!”

Is there any downside to studying in the UK for overseas students? Any negatives?

Sarwat: “Not so far, not in LSE, which is specifically an institution which is full of overseas students. I have found the environment very friendly to all the non-English speakers. There are learning centres. The support service is really good…I have found it rather accommodating.”

That is the experience of overseas students coming to the UK. But what about the idea of UK universities themselves exporting their know-how overseas? In a pioneering move, the University of Nottingham has opened a campus in the Chinese city of Ningbo. Given Britain’s strong international reputation in education, is this the way forward? Professor Geoffrey Crossick says it is too early to say.

“I think that an increasing number of universities in the UK will seek to provide their education abroad, as an alternative to drawing the students here. The reason for that is there’s a burgeoning market, which we’ve talked about. Some of those students will always prefer to come to the UK. A good proportion or others would like to receive a UK degree and a UK quality of education, but do not have the resources or the desire to come to travel across the world to receive it. I think it is a good idea for UK universities to make their education available. Whether that is be establishing their own campuses remains to be seen. But a lot of universities are forming relationships with institutions and delivering their degrees through them. I suspect that the expansion of that will be more common than actually establishing new campuses.”