Why UK universities must focus on attracting Indian students amidst rising UK-China tensions
Over the past few months, the pandemic forced the world to adapt to a new way of living and it is not just limited to our personal and professional life.
The impact on the education systems around the world has been phenomenal, with more than 1.5 billion students unable to attend in-person classes. While this makes up for around 90% of all primary, secondary, and tertiary learners in schools around the world, the higher education sector has over 5 million international students enrolled in universities abroad. And due to the countries implementing lockdowns and the borders closing up, universities and institutions were compelled to face their own challenges in terms of finances and enrolments.
Having said that, the higher education sector showed remarkable resilience in placing effective short-term solutions such as remote classes, triggering a learning revolution across all segments of the education sector. Across the world, universities and institutions are gearing up to reopen for the upcoming semester, some offering blended courses while others planning on-campus learning with necessary precautions. Overseas students typically pay higher fees than domestic students, so they provide an essentially sizable revenue stream to the institution they attend, and this has distorted the priority of universities.
Now it is no doubt that international students generate valuable income and bring diversity to the campuses, their dependence on any one country is extremely worrisome, weakening their credibility and sustainability in the long term. And the universities in the UK, according to a UK Conservative think tank Onward, rely heavily on enrolment from international students, with Chinese students accounting for more than a quarter of the income in tuition fee (£2.1 billion a year).
Sheffield, Glasgow, and Liverpool are amongst the ten leading universities in the UK which are dependent on students from China as they make up for around 28 percent of fee income. While at Imperial, UCL, and Manchester, this accounts for 26 percent and The Royal College of Art stands at 37 percent.
The report by Onward claims there are fears China might take advantage of this by cutting student flows in response to the rising tensions between the two countries. As a result, the UK has called for caps on the number of international students from any one country in universities to “boost resilience” and steering more domestic students into courses with high graduate earnings.
With the present situation continuing to rise, UK universities must now divert their focus on students from India since they make up the third-largest foreign student population in the UK after China and the US. The reintroduction of the two-year post-study visa for international students which allows overseas graduates more time to look for employment after their course encouraged applications from India.
How University Living can help
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With unparalleled access to the South-Asian student market strongly positioned over the Indian sub-continent and spread across the globe esp. in the Middle East, Europe, and North America, University Living can help universities and colleges attract more students from India.
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