Despite being framed as a fair and equitable process, applying to higher education is often anything but.
Your socio-economic background determines your ability to access support for application essays, vital extracurriculars, and extra tuition for admissions tests. In the US, your parents can give you a boosted chance as a legacy admission. If you’re extremely wealthy, parents can even bribe your way in to top institutions, as seen in the admissions scandal of 2017. Overall, students are rarely, if ever, placed on an even footing.
And this is all been exacerbated with the different fees students pay to attend universities, dependent on their nationalities. In the UK and Canada, domestic students pay a fixed price. This is capped by either the government, in the UK case, or by the Province in which the university is situated in Canada. Meanwhile, universities can charge whatever they wish for international students.
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This can lead to overseas students paying three times the price of a domestic admission. With costs soaring due to inflation following the pandemic and little chance of additional government subsidies, international students are being treated as a “golden goose”, keeping the lights on for any institutions that can attract them.
With universities desperately scramble to attract these high-paying students, the higher education landscape is changing significantly, and perhaps not for the better.
British Universities and the “Cash For Courses” Scandal
Preferential treatment for higher-paying overseas student has been accepted for a long time at British universities. The British public see advantages such as receiving earlier offers as necessary to entice higher paying students.
However, it appears there are more advantages to applying as an international student than meets the eye. A recent Times investigation found that overseas students could get on to specific courses if they missed the required grades to fulfil their university offer. A Foundation course for 16 or 17 year olds without A-Level equivalents (the grades received at 18 years old) catches overseas students up to speed before they start their degree. Alternatively, International Year One courses replace the first year of a degree, fast tracking students to second year.
Credit: The Times
Neither of these pathways are open to British domestic students. As you can see from the above graph, the grades expected for the ordinary admission are far higher. For context, in 2023, just 18.3% of A-Level grades were an A, and only 9.8% were A*s. To get three of these grades poses a significant challenge for British students.
According to the investigation, these universities send recruitment officers overseas to advertise these options and consult with prospective students. One described the process as “like a back door” to enter top institutions. Another estimated that 30% of UK international students used these processes.
Meanwhile, Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute think tank says that home students, with their fees capped at 9,250 a year “are a loss-making activity” at top universities.
Canadian Caps on International Students
In February, the Canadian Government announced a two-year cap on the number of international students pursuing undergraduate degrees for 2024 and 2025. Provinces need to decrease their numbers of overseas students by 35%, amounting to an estimated 210,000 cut.
This comes after politicians have blamed immigration for rising cost of living and a tight housing market. Canadian international students, who are able to obtain a graduate work permit and permanent residency following their degrees, have been blamed for this.
Whilst housing stock has increased by 5.7% between 2016 and 2021, whilst international students have increased by 264% between 2015 and 2023.
Of course, its not fair to blame international students alone. The Canadian government has failed to address the shortage of housing for years, refusing to change zoning and land use laws to allow new development in major cities. In addition, international students are just one form of the wider scapegoating of immigration for domestic problems.
However, these students, unlike some of their domestic counterparts, do not have the option to live at home for the duration of their studies. As numbers creep up, more and more students end up on the private housing market, leading to increased demand and minimal supply. This boosts the cost of housing around college areas, contributing to the problem.
UK Universities Clearing and International Students
The UK university system largely relies on giving offers conditional on a set of exam grades, received in the August after you leave school. Students have to confirm their decision by June. Some prospective scholars end up with far higher, or far lower, grades than their offer to their chosen university.
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But these students don’t want to have to take a gap year to reapply. That’s where clearing comes in. After receiving their results, those who are either rejected from or have given up their offer go on UCAS, the national application website, to look at spaces on courses that universities still haven’t filled.
In the past most institutions, even those ranked highly, had places available. However during and after the pandemic, with grade inflation and many students reapplying, these places became fewer. A vital safety net for students wishing to go to competitive courses and universities is fast fading away.
However, not all applicants felt the hit. In August 2023, The Telegraph revealed that whilst domestic applicants often saw very few available clearing spaces at top institutions, international students had far more choice.
Credit: The Telegraph
Durham University, ranked 7th in the UK, alleged to have no course spaces available for home students. Meanwhile, international applicants had the pick of 90 courses. The same happened in Liverpool, with nothing available to UK students, whilst overseas school leavers had 581 options.
Hardly a fair and equitable process?
Concluding thoughts
Canadian and British University campuses are special because of the cosmopolitanism brought to the table by international students. These students contribute significantly to academia, and allow institutions to have truly global alumni networks.
However, it’s time for institutions to stop seeing them as a cash cow, at the expense of domestic students. But there’s no simple solution to this. Universities need money, especially following the pandemic in Britain, where many are facing hefty legal fees as students sue them. With the cost of living on the rise, it is not feasible to ask home students to pay more to go to university. It’s also unlikely that the government will take steps to subsidise higher education given the current economic climates in both Britain and Canada.
Perhaps government intervention in and regulation of the process, such as Canada is attempting to do, is the best way forward. But either way, significant changes need to be made to universities in these two countries. Otherwise, they risk their famous institutions being for the benefit of overseas students above their own citizens.
