International students contributed to 59% of the University of Sheffield’s tuition revenue this year, Forge Press reveals.
Data uncovered from an FOI revealed that international student tuition fees revenue increased tenfold since 2018/2019, when it accounted for just under 50%.
International students at the university had also increased since 2018/2019, when they accounted for 41% of the student population. In the academic year 2023/2024, this percentage is 47%, a 6% increase.
Over 100,000 international students applied to study at the university this year. 100,084 applications were received, a sharp increase from 88,3310 applications last academic year.
However, the number of international students actually accepted at the university is a lot smaller, although this too has steadily increased over the years. 6,242 international student applications were accepted this academic year, compared to 5,374 students in 2018.
Professor Mary Vincent, Vice-President for Education at the University of Sheffield, said: “Sheffield is proud to be a global university that welcomes students and staff from more than 150 countries.
“International students are a vital part of our University community and bring vibrancy and fresh perspectives to our campus, city and wider region. Their cultural, social and economic contribution enriches the University experience of all our students, and they go on to be fantastic ambassadors for Sheffield and the UK.”
A UCU spokesperson said: “An over-reliance on international student recruitment can become a problem, because they render a major source of the University’s income vulnerable to instabilities in demand for University places.So relying too much on international students as a revenue stream is not a long-term solution to keeping universities solvent.”
“A lot of the reasons that university managers do rely on international students’ fees for funding, to be fair to them, are to do with structural problems with funding for UK universities as a sector.
“Since the introduction of tuition fees we have seen systematic cuts to public funding for research and education in higher education, and tuition fees being capped for many years at a time, leading to real-term cuts in the amount that each student contributes to university finances.
“This means that a solution to over-reliance on the uncertain international student recruitment pool is political change in attitudes towards how we fund higher education as a country.”
Speaking of the future of sourcing the university’s income, Professor Vincent said: “At Sheffield, we have a strong financial position, our UK student recruitment has increased and our income comes from multiple sources.
“As well as continuing to make the University of Sheffield as attractive as possible by delivering excellent teaching and learning opportunities, the University will seek to grow other types of income, such as the commercialisation of our research.”