UK: Foreign student market starting to slide

Foreign students make an important contribution not only to British universities but to the national economy. Around 356,000 are studying in Britain, they pay nearly £2 billion (US$4 billion) in fees, and they contribute more than £5 billion to the nation’s wealth. The majority come from China. But the UK is now facing stiff global competition.

"International students contribute immeasurably to the intellectual vitality of UK education, making a critical contribution to our research capacity and our standing in the globalised knowledge economy,” said a spokesman for the British Council, which monitors the global education market.

“They form 14% of the full-time student population and 43% at research postgraduate level.”

The spokesman pointed out that although the UK was second only to America as a market leader, Australia had become increasingly popular and it was being joined by Singapore, Malaysia, China and India. In Europe, France, Germany, Scandinavia and the Netherlands were now offering courses in English in competition with Britain.

Students from Asia made up the biggest group of international students in 2006 with a total of 132,000, most of them coming from China (52,000). Although China is the major exporter of students, the market recently declined by 4% while India, the US, Malaysia and Hong Kong were the other main suppliers.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency’s data showed a slow-down in student growth from non-EU countries – from 11% in 2003-04 to 3% in 2004-05 and to 2% a year later.

But the picture is not all gloomy: trans-national education is the growing market and more than 80% of the country’s higher education institutions are involved in delivering degree programmes outside Britain.

Of the Open University’s 180,000 enrolments, some 25,000 students are based overseas, with the university working in partnership with institutions in 50 countries.

The Campaign for Mainstream Universities, with membership mainly from post-1992 institutions, was recently re-launched as Million+ and works in partnership with higher education institutions in more than 100 countries.

“Our members are pro-active, not only in recruiting and welcoming international students in the UK, but in accrediting degree programmes in countries throughout the world,” said Pam Tatlow, chief executive of Million+. “They are particularly active in trans-national education partnerships and research collaborations.”

Tatlow said that Million+ would like to develop an initiative on the lines of Erasmus (the EU student mobility programme) to encourage more UK students to go abroad for a semester, in particular to China, given that increasing numbers of Chinese universities were offering courses in English.

The British Council estimates there are 200,000 students taking UK degrees abroad and another half a million studying for professional examinations. It predicts that by 2010 the number of students studying for a UK qualification by trans-national education will exceed the number coming to British universities.