Why UK Universities Want Indian Students

Here's some good news for Indian students seeking admission to leading British universities. Even if they are less qualified than those from the UK, they can still make it to some top-ranking universities, which are willing to bend rules to admit candidates from India and China. Reason: International students bring more money to the cash-strapped institutions. Unlike their British counterparts, students from abroad pay the full £27,000 fees for an arts degree. Universities earn far less from British and European students even with the government grant and fees of £9,000 for a three-year degree. Admission tutors for different undergraduate courses at Edinburgh, Manchester and Sheffield told the London-based Sunday Times that they would be prepared to accept an international applicant who had failed to achieve the normal A-level requirements for their course. The tutors — who thought they were talking to the guardian of a 17-year-old Chinese student studying A-levels at a top private boarding school in England — said international students did not always have to meet the academic rules that applied to other applicants. The report quoted one vice-chancellor as saying that overseas students were displacing British students at some of the top universities which did not physically have the space to expand. "The government has created a perverse incentive that means international students bring in more money than British students," he said. Oxford University is reducing its intake of home and European Union students from 11,000 to 10,000, while increasing overseas numbers from 8% to 15% by 2010. It insisted that its motive is not financial but to increase the calibre of its students. Source: Times of India

Related Posts by Categories