UK universities to reassess global student admissions after recruitment issues.

University leaders will scrutinize global student admissions in the UK, exploring methods to detect "misconduct" by agents involved in international recruitment, responding to recent controversies.

Universities UK, representing university leaders, has initiated comprehensive reviews. These will delve into the utilization of recruitment agents, international foundation programs, and the admissions code of practice. The move reflects a commitment to ensuring transparency and efficacy in these crucial aspects of the educational landscape.

There has been a significant focus on recruitment practices relating to international students in recent weeks. While many aspects of the reporting misrepresented the admissions process and criteria, it is vital that students, their families, and government have confidence that the system is fair, transparent, and robust,” Universities UK said.

Recent accusations suggest universities are reducing entry standards for international students, who pay higher tuition fees, subsidizing education and research.

The University of York has told staff to be “more flexible” in admitting international students with lower than expected grades, while an investigation by the Sunday Times recorded agents acting for universities such as Durham and Exeter claiming that international students with poor grades could easily gain entry via international foundation courses.

Durham University described the claims as “plain wrong”. A spokesperson said: “Entry requirements for international students who have completed international foundation years are benchmarked to ensure they are equivalent to those for home students entering with A-levels.”

Universities UK said it would undertake a rapid review of international foundation courses, and compare entry requirements with those for UK students. Vice-chancellors said they would work with the government to review the use of agents, and make changes to “improve resilience and identify bad practice”.

Universities will also update their admissions code of practice “to clearly state its applicability to international students”. The code currently promises “fairness and transparency” and states that universities will “use the evidence they have available to make informed decisions on applicants’ potential to succeed on a course”.

David Willetts, the former universities minister who piloted the introduction of tuition fee loans in England, has blamed the government’s freezing of fees since 2016 for increasing the reliance on overseas student income.

Willets said: “Universities need overseas students to cross-subsidise the domestic ones. The best way to solve this problem would be properly to fund domestic higher education funding, which would mean linking fees to inflation or some other such formula.”

A spokesperson for the Russell Group of leading research universities said international students were not taking up places at the expense of UK students. “The latest Ucas data shows domestic student numbers at Russell Group universities are rising faster than international student numbers,” they said.

Source: The Guardian

Image: BBC, Student Good Guide