A 20-percentage point drop in international student enrolments next academic year could plunge 80 per cent of English and Northern Irish universities into deficit, PwC has warned.
In modelling commissioned by Universities UK, the accountancy firm analyses the possible impact of various scenarios on institutions’ finances in the context of a rapidly deteriorating economic climate for higher education.
It looked at 70 financial returns and found that 40 per cent of providers were projecting to be in deficit in 2023-24 but most were expecting increased income in the years ahead because of continued expansion into international education and more enrolments from the UK’s growing young population.
This was forecast to be accompanied by falling expenditure, with the cost of borrowing and capital outlays assumed to be going down in the next few years.
