Another A levels results day has come and gone. Even before the results were in, it became clear that one of the abiding stories would be of international students edging out their domestic counterparts for places. Some even offered policy recommendations, such as a Telegraph op-ed arguing international student numbers should be immediately capped at 10%.
There is no substantial evidence that universities are making a concerted effort to choose international students over domestic ones, and this year’s results have done nothing to change that. There is, however, ample evidence of the damage that inflation is doing to the funding available for domestic teaching. Office for Students’ analysis showed that inflation has been steadily eroding the value of the domestic tuition fee since it was tripled in 2012, and that by 2023/24, funding levels will be almost what they were before the fee increase. And that was before the current cost of living crisis, which could devastate university finances.
