A record number of international students from non-EU countries have applied to study in the UK, Daily Mail reports.
According to Ucas, applications from non-EU countries rose by 1.5 per cent to 95,840 over the past year. Applicants from China and Turkey made up the majority of applications, with Chinese applications up 3.3 per cent and Turkish applications up 27 per cent compared to January last year.
Experts believe some British students could be forced out of universities in favour of more lucrative international students who pay far more.
Universities are increasingly turning to international students as a way of maintaining funding as tuition fees have been frozen at a time of high inflation. Tuition fees for local students are capped at £9,250, but there is no cap for international students.
Nick Hillman, of the Higher Education Policy Institute, a think-tank, said:
UK universities vehemently deny that international students are displacing home students and it is certainly more complicated than a straight one-for-one swap. It is possible that the result of this year’s application round could be fewer UK undergraduates and more international ones than last year. Universities lose increasingly large sums on each home student and have an ever bigger shortfall to make up via international student fees.
According to the Ucas University Admissions Service, 115,730 international students had applied for undergraduate places by the application deadline in January this year. This number is 0.7 per cent higher than last year.
Vanessa Wilson, chief executive of University Alliance, said:
The benefits are mutual: International students drive more than £40 billion in education export income every year, approximately £560 per citizen. They also contribute additional subsidies to access the NHS and support the financial sustainability of our universities, enabling them to open up more opportunities for home students without increasing the contribution of taxpayers or UK students.
Meanwhile, the Department for Education has promised to investigate allegations of unfair practices by agents recruiting international students to study in the UK.
