Universities' Plan To Double Student Fees Could Leave Millions In Debt Into Their 50s

[The Ayatollah Buggeri]

...students from outside the EU (currently one in seven), postgraduate students, and those partly or wholly funded by the NHS, are all excepted.

Hence the reason my school (within the University of Leeds) has a medium-term business plan that emphasises growing the number of MA students from outside the EU, as the fees income from them is not at risk from government cuts (we can charge them as much as the market will stand: fees for non-EU students are entirely unregulated). We run three UG degree programmes, and are cutting the intake from around 50 to around 40 students (with minor variations) for the September 2009 intake. Unless the HEFCE formula for allocating teaching cash is reformed expect this to happen more and more: the leading universities will look overseas and UK (and EU) school leavers will only have access to the dregs for their undergrad education.