The Guardian recently reported that British officials have been engaged in a heated debate over tuition fees and the scale of international students in the field of higher education.

In order to reduce the rapidly growing number of immigrants, the British government is considering limiting the number of international students, including adjusting the preferential policies of the Graduate Route Visa.

Opponents have made it clear that reducing and limiting the scale of international students will greatly damage the international reputation of British higher education. More seriously, if the number of international students decreases and the contribution of high tuition fees decreases, by the end of 2024, 40% of higher education institutions in the UK will face a financial crisis of insufficient income.

At the same time, the British higher education community called on the government to increase university tuition fees for local students. Since the tuition fees for domestic students in British universities rose sharply in 2012, they have remained unchanged for more than a decade. There are regional differences in tuition fees in the UK, among which the annual university tuition fees in England and Wales are 9,250 pounds, in Northern Ireland are 4,750 pounds, and in Scotland are free.

The rise in the UK's inflation rate has seriously reduced the actual value of the original tuition fees. For example, the actual value of university tuition fees in the dominant England region is only 70% of the surface value. Therefore, the British higher education community called on the government to increase the current tuition fee of 9,250 pounds to 9,750 pounds from the 2025/2026 academic year, and then continue to increase it every year with the inflation rate.

At the same time, in order to stabilize the contribution of international students to the high tuition income of British universities, it is hoped that the British government will separate short-term overseas students from immigrants and not confuse them.

It should be noted that when the UK general election is held in the second half of 2024, it is the top priority of the current government to solve the problem of the surge in the number of immigrants as soon as possible, and raising tuition fees at this time is contrary to public opinion.

Therefore, the Overseas Alliance Academic Degree Network predicts that the tuition fees of British universities will not be adjusted this year, but the UK study visa policy may be tightened, such as continuing to implement the policy that international students’ family members cannot accompany them to study abroad, considering shortening the period of international graduate work visas, etc., to restrict the entry of international students in the short term.