Most of England’s Russell Group universities became even more reliant on international student fees last year, as home fee income dropped while overseas fee income rose from £4 billion to £4.5 billion, meaning those universities took 54 per cent of their total fee income from overseas students.
Managers said pandemic-driven shifts in home and international recruitment were key factors, along with the switch in the treatment of European Union students – from home to international fees – after Brexit, with the overall pattern being for home student numbers to be steady or increase.
But amid a growing sense of crisis in English university funding, the question of where institutions’ money comes from is politically important.
Analysis by Times Higher Education of English Russell Group universities’ 2022-23 accounts shows the biggest shifts in the home-international fee income balance were at the University of Birmingham (52.2 per cent of total fee income from overseas students, up from 44.8 per cent the previous year); the University of Liverpool (44.1 per cent, up from 36.7 per cent); and the University of Southampton (57.6 per cent, up from 51.8 per cent).
