Foreign students realised there’s no point spending near 5 digits to study a BA in Art at an ex-poly university while living in a cramped flat with more roommates than is legally allowed while working cash under the table as a food delivery courier, when they could just spend that 5 digits money in their own country creating an income-producing asset such as a goat farm or a sweatshop employing 13-year-old orphans.
Danimalomorph on
Drop in foreign student visas worrying for UK ~~universities~~ education businesses
Impressive-Eye9874 on
This is great news, far too many bogus universities about. The lecturers of the equally bogus courses will have to find new employment.
NGeoTeacher on
Foreign students (and even some British ones) have figured out they can get just as good an education in, say, the Netherlands, Germany or Norway, as they can in the UK, and pay a fraction of what UK universities charge…and they can still do their degrees in English. UK universities have been coasting on historical reputation for a long time, and quality of teaching elsewhere has caught up. UK universities have similarly become over-dependent on charging foreign students ludicrous sums of money.
It’s always baffling to think how other countries seem to be able to manage to do all these things better than us. I think this is representative of a lot of what Britain is like at the moment – chronic underinvestment and no long-term strategy.
Electrical-Skin-8006 on
Many foreign students tend to look into education as a step for migration into the country. The UK unfortunately now has a bad rep globally with the cost of living, low wages, quality of life and also not as valueble without freedom of movement into the EU anymore.
Puzzleheaded-Ad-2982 on
If I’d known how much uni would end up costing me in the UK, I would have got my Irish citizenship sooner, moved to Ireland and got my degree(s) there. The UK system, particularly the English one, is a big scam.
tika_dengu on
Student visas are seen as a cheaper alternative to property visas. Hardly anyone comes here for “education”, the intention is more sinister.
With only one exception, every new business that has opened within about seven blocks of the campus is a Chinese supermarket or restaurant. No one local has money to spend. And I frequently look around on the (crowded) streets and struggle to find anyone who doesn’t appear to be Chinese.
There are idiots who are blaming Chinese students for this situation. It’s not their fault that UK taxpayers have voted for 14 years of decline. It’s heartbreaking that our own kids are stuck in low-paid, unstable retail and hospitality jobs while we pay lecturers a pittance to teach foreigners and fill seats with foreign students.
It’s 2024. We need an educated populace. This situation is shameful.
mat_caves on
I do some research in my local university which is well respected Russell group institution. Luckily I’m employed by the NHS and not by the university itself. I’d estimate over half of the senior academics I have collaborated with over the last decade have been pushed into unplanned early retirement / voluntary redundancy over the last year, with no real contingency plans for their labs/groups.
We never should have been in the position where universities were propped up by foreign student tuition fees, but that is the position we ended up in, and now we’re seeing the inevitable crash. I’m not really sure how we’re going to come back from this – so much expertise lost virtually overnight.
DistanceExcellent901 on
It’s a scam anyway. They send you back home after paying more than £100,000 after 4 years
JB_UK on
It’s a biased framing that the BBC has put on this, student visas went down by 16%, 65k people, dependents went down by 89%, 100,000 people. They have limited dependents only to postgraduate research degrees.
I think it’s highly likely this will mean a big reduction in people coming to the UK for the purposes of grey market work. Who comes to an undergraduate degree in a foreign country, usually starting age 18-21, and brings their family? A lot of those visas will be effectively Deliveroo visas, where people are using the payment for the course as a way of accessing the country.
It’s an interesting point that even when the government does something sensible on migration they will not get the credit for it, because the media paints such a one sided picture of what is happening.
Mammoth-Ad-562 on
The worry for the average person is that our whole population growth comes from immigration.
If we aren’t attracting the right kind of people then we will just be left with economic migrants and criminals who are here for the benefits it brings.
AlienPandaren on
That pair of mullets in the photo is the *real* problem here though!
Tifog on
We told everyone in the EU to fuck off shocked face
actingasawave on
At the middle manager level there is a total failure of initiative to collaborate internationally to bring in cash from other sources post-Brexit. These people assume it will be hard without actually trying. They’re not willing to even entertain collaboration because they have an ivory tower colonial mindset that sees anyone or anything outside the UK as inferior. It’s not just the failure of policy at the governmental level, it’s people without the skills to manage programmes because they are academics and researchers. Course leaders and heads of department are not experienced, qualified, equipped, or resourced enough to do the job that is now needed because the support they had previously in HR and admin/business support have been the first areas cut as all but the few richest institutions have restructured and cut back massively. The problem is complex, but it needs a full system change to be addressed, and these places are too stuck in their ways to adapt so it’s only going to get more brutal.
Pikaea on
Backdoor access into the country for many international students. Excluding Arabian, and Chinese as they tend to go back home.
Ivorsune on
The country is FUBARed, and the reality is only setting in slowly. It’s only gonna get worse from here unless something radical changes things.
Tiddleypotet on
International fees for EU students may not have been the best idea..
xParesh on
Oh yes! I work in HE and and the chickens are definitely coming home to roost. That’s what happens when the University sector goes from focusing on educating people to focusing on just being another economic engine whose doesn’t care how talented you are as long as you bring in the money.
19 Comments
Foreign students realised there’s no point spending near 5 digits to study a BA in Art at an ex-poly university while living in a cramped flat with more roommates than is legally allowed while working cash under the table as a food delivery courier, when they could just spend that 5 digits money in their own country creating an income-producing asset such as a goat farm or a sweatshop employing 13-year-old orphans.
Drop in foreign student visas worrying for UK ~~universities~~ education businesses
This is great news, far too many bogus universities about. The lecturers of the equally bogus courses will have to find new employment.
Foreign students (and even some British ones) have figured out they can get just as good an education in, say, the Netherlands, Germany or Norway, as they can in the UK, and pay a fraction of what UK universities charge…and they can still do their degrees in English. UK universities have been coasting on historical reputation for a long time, and quality of teaching elsewhere has caught up. UK universities have similarly become over-dependent on charging foreign students ludicrous sums of money.
It’s always baffling to think how other countries seem to be able to manage to do all these things better than us. I think this is representative of a lot of what Britain is like at the moment – chronic underinvestment and no long-term strategy.
Many foreign students tend to look into education as a step for migration into the country. The UK unfortunately now has a bad rep globally with the cost of living, low wages, quality of life and also not as valueble without freedom of movement into the EU anymore.
If I’d known how much uni would end up costing me in the UK, I would have got my Irish citizenship sooner, moved to Ireland and got my degree(s) there. The UK system, particularly the English one, is a big scam.
Student visas are seen as a cheaper alternative to property visas. Hardly anyone comes here for “education”, the intention is more sinister.
[https://www.businessinsider.in/international/news/reverse-colonialism-uk-sees-massive-boom-in-migrant-populations-even-as-local-birth-rates-decline-with-indians-leading-the-pack/articleshow/114139136.cms](https://www.businessinsider.in/international/news/reverse-colonialism-uk-sees-massive-boom-in-migrant-populations-even-as-local-birth-rates-decline-with-indians-leading-the-pack/articleshow/114139136.cms)
You wouldn’t know it where I work.
With only one exception, every new business that has opened within about seven blocks of the campus is a Chinese supermarket or restaurant. No one local has money to spend. And I frequently look around on the (crowded) streets and struggle to find anyone who doesn’t appear to be Chinese.
There are idiots who are blaming Chinese students for this situation. It’s not their fault that UK taxpayers have voted for 14 years of decline. It’s heartbreaking that our own kids are stuck in low-paid, unstable retail and hospitality jobs while we pay lecturers a pittance to teach foreigners and fill seats with foreign students.
It’s 2024. We need an educated populace. This situation is shameful.
I do some research in my local university which is well respected Russell group institution. Luckily I’m employed by the NHS and not by the university itself. I’d estimate over half of the senior academics I have collaborated with over the last decade have been pushed into unplanned early retirement / voluntary redundancy over the last year, with no real contingency plans for their labs/groups.
We never should have been in the position where universities were propped up by foreign student tuition fees, but that is the position we ended up in, and now we’re seeing the inevitable crash. I’m not really sure how we’re going to come back from this – so much expertise lost virtually overnight.
It’s a scam anyway. They send you back home after paying more than £100,000 after 4 years
It’s a biased framing that the BBC has put on this, student visas went down by 16%, 65k people, dependents went down by 89%, 100,000 people. They have limited dependents only to postgraduate research degrees.
I think it’s highly likely this will mean a big reduction in people coming to the UK for the purposes of grey market work. Who comes to an undergraduate degree in a foreign country, usually starting age 18-21, and brings their family? A lot of those visas will be effectively Deliveroo visas, where people are using the payment for the course as a way of accessing the country.
It’s an interesting point that even when the government does something sensible on migration they will not get the credit for it, because the media paints such a one sided picture of what is happening.
The worry for the average person is that our whole population growth comes from immigration.
If we aren’t attracting the right kind of people then we will just be left with economic migrants and criminals who are here for the benefits it brings.
That pair of mullets in the photo is the *real* problem here though!
We told everyone in the EU to fuck off shocked face
At the middle manager level there is a total failure of initiative to collaborate internationally to bring in cash from other sources post-Brexit. These people assume it will be hard without actually trying. They’re not willing to even entertain collaboration because they have an ivory tower colonial mindset that sees anyone or anything outside the UK as inferior. It’s not just the failure of policy at the governmental level, it’s people without the skills to manage programmes because they are academics and researchers. Course leaders and heads of department are not experienced, qualified, equipped, or resourced enough to do the job that is now needed because the support they had previously in HR and admin/business support have been the first areas cut as all but the few richest institutions have restructured and cut back massively. The problem is complex, but it needs a full system change to be addressed, and these places are too stuck in their ways to adapt so it’s only going to get more brutal.
Backdoor access into the country for many international students. Excluding Arabian, and Chinese as they tend to go back home.
The country is FUBARed, and the reality is only setting in slowly. It’s only gonna get worse from here unless something radical changes things.
International fees for EU students may not have been the best idea..
Oh yes! I work in HE and and the chickens are definitely coming home to roost. That’s what happens when the University sector goes from focusing on educating people to focusing on just being another economic engine whose doesn’t care how talented you are as long as you bring in the money.