Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to address the reliance by UK universities on tuition fees from students from China.

The department is proud that the UK is a world leading destination for international students.

As set out in the Government’s International Education Strategy, higher education (HE) providers must ensure they are not overly reliant on a single source of funding, whether this is from an organisation or nation, and that they must look to diversify their intake of international students to prevent over-reliance.

The most recent data published by the Higher Education Statistics Authority for the 2021/22 academic year, shows the proportion of Chinese students has fallen, whilst there has been an increase in a wide range of other international student markets, including a 50% increase in students from India, a 107% increase in students from Nigeria and a 78% increase in students from Pakistan, demonstrating the HE sector’s positive approach to diversifying their international student intake.