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Britain
OpinionComment
Kavitha Rao
Kavitha Rao

Opinion | Targeting international students won’t save Britain’s crumbling university system

  • The UK government is placing more restrictions on foreign students, causing dismay among university staff and administrators
  • Making it more difficult to study in the UK is self-defeating and will only harm British universities that are already struggling

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Students and their families queue at the UK Visa Application Centre in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, on September 4, 2017. Britain’s Conservative-led government is targeting international students as a way to reduce immigration despite the key role they play in funding British universities and bringing talent into the country. Photo: Nora Tam
Kavitha Rao
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak came to power on a rash promise to cut immigration. Unfortunately for him, immigration has reached record levels this year, causing deep outrage among his Conservative Party. A desperate Sunak and Home Secretary Suella Braverman have now decided to target international students – the cash cows for many British universities – but their hasty moves will hurt British students more than anyone.
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On May 23, Braverman announced new limits on overseas students bringing family to the UK. Only those on research programmes, such as PhD students or research-led masters courses, will be able to bring in dependents.

Many international students were drawn to the UK because of its two-year post-study work visa, available to anyone who studies in the UK. Earlier this year, though, Braverman proposed scrapping the visa and reducing the time to six months. Last year, Sunak said there would be a crackdown on international students studying “low-quality” degrees without saying which degrees this would cover.

Braverman’s announcement has caused dismay in British universities, which are still recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic. They say it will affect students from certain countries and make universities less attractive to international students.
International students propel British universities. British student fees have been frozen at £9,250 (US$11,500) for years, and have failed to keep up with rampant inflation. International students pay around double that on average.
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For years, universities have exploited international students to pay for local students and failed to invest in other methods of funding. Now, university vice-chancellors say the UK higher education system is “broken” because of its heavy reliance on international students.

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