Britain has a world-class higher education system that attracts students from across the globe, generates $32 billion a year in exports and serves as a significant source of prestige and influence for the country and its values. It also has a funding model that doesn’t work — and that’s becoming more and more of a problem.
Pore through the data on UK universities and the extent to which the sector has become dependent on fees from overseas students is immediately apparent. The share of income from non-European Union students almost quadrupled since the turn of the millennium to 19.1% in the 2021/22 academic year. A record 680,000 foreign students arrived that year, blowing past a government target of reaching 600,000 by 2030. The percentage of non-UK students rose to 24% of the total, more than double the share two decades earlier.
