Institutions across the country are expecting to lose more than £100m as foreign students cancel their studies, with warnings that the impact of coronavirus will hugely affect the sector.
Several organisations estimate a 80-100 per cent reduction in their foreign student numbers this year, with prestigious names said to be among those most affected.
The sector is already making a plea to the government for financial support amounting to billions of pounds to help it through the crisis, as a considerable amount of universities’ budget relies on international student numbers, accommodation deals and conference income.
We asked international students at NTU how are they planning to continue their studies and if the pandemic has changed anything for them.
Broadcast student Francesca Biscozzi, 20, said: “I’m in my second year of university, I will graduate and get my degree in 2021.
“To me, withdrawing would be just strategic bad move, since I would have to start again and I would have lost two years of learning.”
Francesca is an international student from Italy and has developed a passion for filming and video-editing.
She added: “I will continue to study in the UK and I plan on coming back as soon as the bans is over, since I do not only study in the UK, I’ve built a life and I’m slowly building a career for myself there.”
International students at NTU say they are motivated to remain in the UK to continue their studies despite the pandemic.
Students have said the fear to contract the virus is not a reason to leave the UK as COVID-19 is a worldwide crisis – so they wouldn’t minimize the risks by withdrawing.
Second year Journalism student, Emilia Roman, 20, says she doesn’t feel “put at risk health-wise”.
She added: “I think the government and the NHS are doing the best they can to keep us safe.
“Also the public is largerly following the government’s rules which is very reassuring.
“I feel much safer here than I would’ve felt back home.”
However, she insists this crisis “should be a big wake up call for universities”.
She said: “UK universities have started to operate more like businesses instead of sources of higher education.
“Students invest thounds of pounds a year in their education and still have to pay to have access to extra resources or for something as little as paying for their graduation garments.
“So this bares the question: are universities investing their money right? Or should they already have an emergency fund that can cover them during a crisis?”
British universities face a black hole of hundreds of millions in tuition fees as international students cancel their studies. (Photo credit: Pixabay)
Unfortunately, this financial impasse hits after a backdrop of declining numbers of university-age students in the UK and the previous uncertainty around Brexit.
Many institutions have recently borrowed heavily to pay for attractive new faculties, often designed to attract overseas students.
Head of higher education at Lloyds Banking Group Andrew Connors said the crisis has felt “less like a perfect storm and more like a tsunami hitting the sector”.
Banks have not had urgent requests from universities, as big financial hits are expected later in the year.
In a blog for the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi), he added: “Many institutions are modelling reductions of between 80 and 100 per cent in international student numbers.
“Every university we have spoken to expects to be impacted and for some the potential loss to income is projected to be greater than £100m.
“And that is before you factor in that losing new students has a multi-year impact.”
He adds that he expects banks to offer UK universities loans where needed, given their significance in the economy.
He warns, however: “I worked through the financial crisis of 2007/08 and it does not compare in my experience to what we are witnessing now – this crisis has touched everybody in some shape or form and many previously viable businesses are now in a fight for survival.”
The Office for Students, the independent regulator of higher education, has already streamlined its rules in the wake of the crisis, calling for universities to sound the alarm if they fear they’ll run short of cash within 30 days.
Universities UK, the industry body, has proposed a series of measures to the government to double research funding and offer emergency loans to troubled institutions, as well as placing a cap on the number of undergraduates many institutions can recruit in 2020-21.
Nick Hillman, Hepi’s director, warned that universities only had limited options to cut their costs.
He said: “There are things they can do to mitigate the impact, such as doing all they can to ensure international students keep coming, pausing the development of their estates, doing less research, looking at their staffing and persuading home final-year students to stay on for postgraduate study.
“But some were in financial difficulties even before the current crisis.
“If international student numbers are down a lot, we have a big problem.
“The ones with lots of international students could still potentially fill their places with home students (who pay lower fees) but that just leaves a problem lower down the tree.”
By Olimpia Zagnat