Pubey
Guest
Indeed, many smaller European countries fund their residents to come to the UK and they pay the much higher fees to do so. Purely on a financial basis, if everyone on a certain Masters course that we provide was from the UK, we would only receive about half the fees that we currently get where the majority of the students are from overseas. We continue to promote UK students to come on our courses, but they follow the application criteria just like anyone else, but we are an internationally renowned uni and most of the interest comes from abroad.
The money that comes into our Faculty obviously goes into the training and teaching, but the money also goes into our research, which has a massive impact on the UK (hopefully positive!) in terms of our contracts with local PCTs, NICE and the NHS. The crux is that overseas students are helping fund our UK research agenda, which isn't a bad thing!
Also, Einstein is right, the UK universities are something we should be really proud of. Especially in terms of Europe our research and teaching is first class, and for certain specialties we're competing with the best in Asia and America. I would say that for depth of teaching quality as well, we are probably the best in the world. I'm not sure that you can say we have a two tier system of uni's anymore, and that the ones with lower entrance requirements are starting to find niche areas for research as that's where their primary funding comes from through the RAE.
I would also add that I did my BA at a uni where about 1/3rd of the course were overseas, and then my MSc was at a uni where only 5 of 60 students were from the UK. Having now seen the other side where (mainly administrative) issues can arise when teaching overseas students... I would still definitely say that as a student, it was a positive and mind-opening experience where you learnt about international issues, not just stuff restricted to the UK, which in my job is becoming very relevent. Also I just liked engaging with foreign coursemates and many of the ones on my BA had a much better work ethic than the UK ones, who some felt they could just doss and **** around and get a 2:1.
I don't think that we are having overseas students learning here at the expense of anyone, in fact I think it enriches the courses and uni's and the fact that we can get a lot more money in because of the prostigious nature of our uni's and our reputations means that I can't see any real downsides to it.
My housemate is a mature student from Libya who is doing an MSc in Physiotherapy at Sheffield Hallam. I was chatting to him and it turns out that he is one of the most renowned Physio's in his country, having done a lot of high up sports stuff and having a very respected clinic. He did his original training here and now has come back to get an MSc (self-funded I think). I asked him if he would think about staying here, but he is 100% adamant that he will go home. He is proud of his roots but he is also grateful for the UK and Sheffield Hallam to allow him the opportunity to develop his career, something that just isn't available in his country. Also having an MSc will allow him to attract research money and to continue to improve services for his country. Also just because he isn't going to stay here doesn't mean he has been a drain on resources, I'm sure he has enriched the course he is on, as peer-learning is so important. He has also paid his way, and provided a developing university with a lot of money.
I'm sorry for this very long ramble, but I just can't see your argument and that is coming from a recent student and someone who works at a uni.
for info:
If you want to do an MSc here at ScHARR, it's about £3300 for a UK student, and £14000 for an overseas student
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