Universities: the facts about fiction

Headlines in the Sunday Times, Times and Telegraph over the last few weeks have focused on how British students are failing to get places at University because of the massive increase in foreign students taking up places. These stories were ramped up by GB News, never slow to escalate its prejudices, saying that 'it made their blood boil', yet another literal fiction. These claims all fit the post-Brexit tendency of the government and its fourth estate behemoths to blame the foreigners or better still the EU for the ever-mounting list of catastrophes As is often the case the excellent 'More or Less' programme on Radio 4 subjected these claims to their verification experts. By the simple expedient of examining facts rather than accepting the wished-for fiction as the default narrative, the story toppled.

The number of UK students going to English Universities increased by 19,135 in the five years from 2019 to 2024, a 4.85% increase. The number of International students from outside the EU increased by 15,000 or  34.8% over this period but this was more than offset by a reduction of 20,000 students from the EU countries meaning a net reduction of 5000 students from overseas. Many of the International students are now enrolled on one-year induction courses rather than degree courses that most European students had previously enrolled for.  

It could be argued that Universities, by charging higher fees than had been possible before when EU students had paid the same fees as UK students, had found a way to fund more UK students. However, in the process, they have dumbed down the entrance requirements and qualifications on offer to International students and opened an alternative route for in-migration. This is not a narrative that we will hear from either government ministers or the universities. 'Follow the Money' is the silent motto for them both. Their moral compass is calibrated to between 100° and 140°, that is to students from Southeast Asia and the Middle East, just like funding for most of the government's infrastructure investment.