By Vipul Jain
Scotland is the only nation in the UK that provides free university tuition to domestic students. On behalf of most of the Scottish undergraduate students who are pursuing their first degree tuition fees of £1,820 per year are paid by The Student Awards Agency Scotland but this is only a small portion of the actual cost of education. What can students do? There are part-time jobs for students in London but studying and working together can be a hectic task.
Professor Sarah Armstrong from the University of Glasgow has expressed her worries on this issue which promoted arguments about whether the government is paying enough or whether it should increase its funding to completely cover the cost of Scottish Students. She said that this dependency on international students for a major source of income is a problem because international students pay 10 times more for tuition than domestic students.
Students might already have a lot of expenses especially those who live away from their homes. People might think there are no expenses as such do students have to pay the council or do they have any other expenses? Yes they do
During the academic year 2022-2023, the Scottish universities saw a record of high enrollment of international students. Among this 29% of the student population was from overseas whose tuition fees played a very important role as a source for funding the universities
The biggest proportion of international students was from China having approximately 20,000 students from there and a huge number of students also came from India, the US, and Nigeria. As the expenses increased the number of Scottish students who had the benefit of free undergraduate tuition decreased by approximately 10,000 but 60% of the total still accounted.
Students had the option of the top 10 most affordable universities in UK. 173,745 students were from Scotland and 83,975 were from outside the UK among the 292,249 higher education students. This figure was according to the statistics from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.
This shows a significant proportion of Scottish to international students varying between different universities. One interesting thing is that two of Scotland’s leading universities which are Edinburgh and St Andrews got more international students than Scottish students. You can also check the List of Top 10 Universities in UK.
Universities in Scotland are worried about the impact of the decline in the enrollment of international students since 2023. They believe that it can put the education sector’s financial stability under pressure.
They highlight that the free tuition fees for Scottish undergraduates are heavily dependent on the financial contribution from the international students. Some academic professionals have even said that the dependency on income from international students is unacceptable for a long-term approach and have asked both the UK and Scottish governments to think over the existing higher education funding model again and make changes.
The education minister Graeme Dey said that the valuable contribution of international students in Scotland has a positive impact on the economy, society, and culture and also spotlighted how they improve the diversity of the communities, enhance the learning experiences, support the local business, and contribute growth and employment opportunities.
He appreciated the government’s strong commitment to maintaining free tuition and stated that it is encouraging to see a good number of Scottish students from the most disadvantaged communities getting accepted into universities and we can check the UK Acceptance Rate for International Students.
This initiative represents the progress in giving access to higher education by ensuring equal opportunities for every person in Scotland regardless of the community they belong to.
In response to the issue of dependency and reliability on international students Scottish Conservative education spokesperson Liam Kerr raised worry about the increasing dependency of universities on international students and also the impact of SNP cuts on the universities. He also highlighted that this has led to the rejection of a lot of talented students from Scotland every year.
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