Higher education funding: Education Committee holds first session after publishing written evidence
With a growing number of universities making redundancies, cutting courses and facing insolvency, the Education Committee begins taking evidence as part of its new inquiry into higher education funding.
Meeting details
The Committee has also published 95 written submissions received during its call for evidence.
In this session, MPs will examine the causes of the financial stress on universities throughout the country, and the relationship institutions have with revenue received from international students’ tuition fees.
In 2023/24, fee income from international students accounted for 45.6% of the total that the UK sector receives. The remaining 54.4% (£12.3 billion) came from UK students. In the same year, 25% of all students at English universities were international students.
The Higher Education Statistics Agency says there is considerable use of revenue generated by international students for research and for teaching domestic students.
The cross-party Committee is likely to ask its first panel of expert witnesses about whether the Government should support universities that could be facing insolvency, how students would be supported, and the role of institutions in their local economies.
A second panel may be asked about the Government’s proposed levy on international tuition fees to fund maintenance grants for some domestic students, and the impact of recent and proposed restrictions on international students staying in the UK after completing their courses.