Universities already “finding it very difficult to make ends meet” have been put under further financial pressure by UK government immigration policy deterring international students, with institutions’ reliance on overseas income being the “uncomfortable reality”, according to vice-chancellors.
A Westminster Higher Education Forum event on university funding heard from speakers including Jenny Higham, the St George’s, University of London vice-chancellor who chaired Universities UK’s group looking for funding solutions via a “national conversation” on funding.
Professor Higham highlighted the impact of the tuition fee cap freeze in England alongside high inflation. “Now we’re in a situation where the unit of resource has fallen away so steeply and costs have increased, that universities are finding it very difficult to make ends meet,” she warned.
Universities have “tried to cross-subsidise” the cost of educating domestic students via “aspirations” to increase international recruitment, but “interestingly in the very last cycle people didn’t meet those aspirations”, she added, after Ucas figures showed a fall in international student acceptances this year.
