The number of British students studying abroad has plummeted

According to the Guardian and other British media news, the Office for Students (Office for Students), the UK higher education regulator, estimates that 40% of British universities face losses in 2024 due to a sharp decline in overseas students.

Jamie Arrowsmith, director of Universities UK International, pointed out that many universities borrowed heavily during the period of low interest rates and are now struggling to repay their debts.

According to the Universities and Students Union, three or four universities/colleges are already on the verge of bankruptcy.

According to John Rushforth, a university management expert in the UK, about 70 universities have cut staff, and in some cases entire departments.

Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Portsmouth have announced 400 jobs are "under threat", Coventry University has planned spending cuts to save nearly £100m by 2026, and a number of universities are considering mergers.

Tuition fees for international students increased from £5.4bn in 2016-17 to £9.7bn in 2021-22, with a growing share of predominantly business school international students following Brexit, particularly from India and Nigeria, with the largest number coming from China.

However, this trend came to an abrupt end in 2024. "The government has created a hostile environment for foreign students in the hope of driving down immigration," sighs Mr Speer.

The UK has also been affected by the worsening global economy, putting off some students. "We are competing with universities in Canada and Australia that welcome international students with open arms," Speer said.

By the start of the 2024 school year, the number of visas granted to foreign students was 17 per cent lower than the previous year. Industry insiders say some institutions have seen declines of as much as 30 to 50 per cent. While raising tuition fees for British students may seem unrealistic, especially now that Labour is in power, there are growing calls forstate aid.

"Our funding model is very unusual because it relies on what students pay," Rushforth notes. In the UK, the proportion of public funding in the form of bursaries for the most expensive courses, such as medicine, is just 25 per cent, compared with an average of 67 per cent across the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. In France, the figure is 60.2 per cent.

The Guardian reported in July last year that the UK's higher education regulator, the Office for Students (OfS), had suddenly written to 23 universities warning them against over-reliance on Chinese students and asking them to review contingency income plans to prevent the risk of a sudden disruption to international enrolment.

In the 2021/22 academic year, Chinese students accounted for 27% of all non-EU students, far more than any other country. University College London (UCL) and the University of Manchester are the two universities receiving the most Chinese students.

The report also said that for many higher education institutions (universities), recruiting British students is a loss, only to recruit more international students, tuition fees are not regulated to make education groups "full."

In 2021-22, more than 3,100 Chinese nationals studied for PHDS at UK universities, far more than the next three countries - the US, India and Saudi Arabia - combined.

In five years, the proportion of Chinese nationals holding international PHDS has risen from 17% to 28%, while the number of EU PHDS has fallen by 42%. International students account for almost half of all PhD degrees at UK universities.