Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 13 February 2025 to Question 29255 on Immigration: Overseas Students, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of international students on UK universities.

This government is clear that international students, who make a positive impact on UK higher education (HE), our economy and society as a whole, are welcome in the UK. They bring significant benefits, by enriching our university campuses, forging lifelong friendships with our domestic students and becoming global ambassadors for the UK.

HE providers in the UK received an estimated £12.1 billion in tuition fee income from international students in the 2022/23 academic year, which supported the provision of places for domestic students and research and development.

The Office for Students (OfS) is the independent regulator of English HE providers. In its most recent report on the financial health of the sector, published November 2024, the OfS assessed the risks to provider financial sustainability and overreliance on recruitment of students from particular countries was noted as a particular concern.

The OfS emphasised that the HE sector should be cautious about depending too much on international student fee income in their recruitment forecasts and urged institutions to have strong contingency plans to mitigate the financial risks of over-recruiting from a single country.

All providers must continue to adapt to financial risks and, as autonomous bodies independent of government, it is for them to decide on effective business models.