As a former UCAS Coordinator for many years overseas, I continue to track enrolment trends in the UK, and this article references “continued challenges for the sector”, with almost 80% of the 54 universities surveyed reporting that they were not able to meet their international recruitment goals for September 2024.
Across the UK, there is ongoing concern about the financial stability of universities and that this may have contributed to an over-reliance on international students for revenue. There were also concerns raised about the ongoing impact of previous government policies regarding immigration, and that a recent ban on the dependents of students in the postgraduate taught master’s track had a chilling effect as well.
I see similar challenges in Canada recently with the number of places for international students having been reduced based on housing and access to services concerns, and this speaks to the need for government immigration policy makers to involve higher education representatives in these critical and far reaching decisions.
