UK: Overseas students prop up university finances

Overseas students are propping up UK universities' finances, with some paying fees of more than £20,000 (US$32,500) a year, data compiled for The Guardian revealed last week, writes Jessica Shepherd.

At Imperial College London, students from outside the European Union enrolling on undergraduate degrees in the sciences will pay up to £20,400 each year in fees, information obtained from 175 universities and colleges shows. At Oxford, fees for overseas students starting undergraduate arts degrees are up to £17,100 each year, according to Mike Reddin, a former academic at the London School of Economics, who gathered the data.

Most overseas students starting an undergraduate degree in the sciences will pay an average of £10,781 in fees for each year of their course, the data shows. This is a 3.7% increase on last year's fees, Reddin found. Those on undergraduate arts degrees will spend an average of £9,911 in fees each year, which is 4.2% more than the average for the same courses last year.
Full report on The Guardian site