As a Newcastle University spokesperson said: "We are in a sound financial position but like many other universities, we are managing the impact of a shortfall in international student recruitment this year resulting in a fall in income.” So why are so many universities struggling with the recruitment of international students, and what can Newcastle do to change this?
The main reason behind the lack of international students is undoubtedly newly-enforced visa changes. New rules have been enforced that make it more difficult for international students to bring family members abroad with them, and the salary threshold for staying in the UK after studying has been raised.
Following Brexit in 2016, changes to visa requirements and student finance for EU students alone have led to a 50% decline in accepted applicants in 2021/22. The Turing Scheme was also introduced, replacing the Erasmus+ program, which provided funding for international students.
"International students contribute an average of £41.9 billion to the UK per year..."
The Turing Scheme, on the other hand, does not fund students from abroad. Due to general inflation in England and more constraints, students are being drawn to other, cheaper European countries to study; this leaves UK universities in an uncompromising position.
So what should we do about it? International students contribute an average of £41.9 billion to the UK per year, and across the UK international students are expected to pay £10,000-29,000 annually for a lecture-based, undergraduate course.
However, for European countries they only have to pay £5,000-13,000 per academic year; this is where we’re going wrong. Perhaps, if we lowered the fee for attending UK universities, more international students would actually be able to come to Newcastle, and we’d have more of a budget to work with throughout the year.
It’s an entirely feasible plan- particularly for our new government which has promised to lower student loans anyway. International students are a core part of our university, and it’s about time we started treating them equally.
