UK universities have been warned that vital recruitment of Chinese students is “getting harder” as their “super-dependency” on this flow takes them “into new territory in terms of financial risk”, even though latest figures indicate Chinese numbers are back on track with long-term trends after a dip last year.
Ucas figures on applications to UK universities for 2024-25 by the January deadline showed an increase from China of 3 per cent, or 910 students, compared with 2023, when numbers fell by 4.2 per cent on the previous year.
Although only a minority of overseas students apply via Ucas, the trend will reassure UK universities, forced to increase international student income to offset real-terms cuts in home student funding while other institutional costs have risen sharply during a period of high inflation, with China in particular key for many.
Mark Corver, managing director of data and analytics at the consultancy dataHE, said that numbers for both 18-year-old entrants from China last year and for applicants this year, though showing “some weakness compared with other years”, were “still on track with the decade-long trend”.
