Universities in the UK will be seeking the right to charge higher tuition fees in return for bringing an end to a cap on international students’ increase. The plan is part of a blue print universities are set to publish amid growing financial difficulties caused by capped tuition fees and inflation rates.
The tuition cap for undergraduate students in England, which has been at £9,250 since 2017, has effectively lost monetary value to inflation due to how universities heavily depend on the uncapped fees being paid by international students. To rectify this circumstance, UUK recommends that, to correct this current imbalance, the tuition fees for domestic students should be increased to at least that of inflation and to top it off, the government will add more financial resources.
“I think we want to see universities manage the effect of these international student numbers, especially in areas where there is housing shortage and pressure on local services,” says Vivienne Stern, Chief Executive of UUK. “We do not want to confine growth in international student numbers but need maintainable and well-managed solutions.”
From the plan, it is clear that teaching and supporting each undergraduate domestic student costs between £12,000 and £13,000 per year, a clearly evident gap between income and expenditure. Since no figure is mentioned in the paper, it is clear that this calls for another increase in tuition fees besides requesting more investment from government if it is to “avoid sliding into decline.”
The proposal also advocates that universities handle voluntary growth in the population of international students, especially in areas whose infrastructure is stretched. This proposition will be matched by the promise of Prime Minister Keir Starmer to reduce net immigration in Britain.
Students must not be expected to foot the bill for the university funding crisis,’ said Alex Stanley, vice president for higher education at the National Union of Students. He said there would be a ‘mass increase’ in tuition fees and therefore ‘mass student debt’ and penalized advantage disadvantage students.
Other recommendations include restoration of maintenance grants for disadvantaged students besides an increase in the inflationary rate of maintenance loans. An agenda also included a stable visa regime that ensures most students who enter return to their countries after completing their studies.
With constant financial pressures on the universities, this paper flags a growing anomaly between competing international imperatives and domestic challenges in the funding of higher education.
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