Top universities ‘likely to shun British teenagers in favour of foreign students’

Top universities are offering more places to international students than British applicants in clearing, The Telegraph can disclose.

Analysis of courses advertised by the University Colleges and Admissions Service (Ucas) shows that foreign students are being offered places on hundreds more undergraduate degrees in clearing at Russell Group institutions than their British counterparts.

It means that British teenagers who fail to achieve the A-level grades needed for their first-choice course when results come out on Thursday are likely to be disappointed when they try to find another course.

It comes amid a rise in the number of international students at British universities, with 679,970 studying in the UK in 2021-22. 

Undergraduate fees have been capped at £9,250 for domestic students since 2017, whereas there is no limit on fees for international students.

Ten Russell Group universities were offering places on more courses to international students than British students the weekend before A-level results day on Thursday.

They include Durham University, which had no courses available to UK students over the weekend. However, it was advertising 90 degrees to international students, ranging from accounting and ancient history to physics and computer science.

Liverpool University also had no courses on offer to UK students, but had 581 on offer to international students – including aerospace engineering, biochemistry, business management, and English literature.

Leeds is advertising only 13 courses to UK applicants, including nursing, midwifery, and arts and humanities with a foundation year. However, it is marketing 181 courses to international students.

British students have been warned that competition for places through clearing will be tougher this month than in recent years.

Writing exclusively for The Telegraph, Clare Marchant, the head of Ucas, and Vivienne Stern, chief executive of Universities UK, say that universities “have increased the number of offers they have made in the run-up to results day, which means they may have fewer places to offer in clearing compared to previous years”.

Tens of thousands of students are expected to end up in clearing as this year’s A-level cohort faces a record drop in top grades as pre-pandemic standards return.

However, admissions experts warn that universities are likely to shun British teenagers in favour of international students, who pay up to four times more in fees.

Dr Mark Corver, a former director of research at Ucas, who is managing director of dataHE, said: “Universities are facing many tough decisions as they go through the results for a record 253,000 18-year-old offer-holders this week.

“With the largest move down in A-level grades on the cards, it is likely they will have more near-miss students than usual to weigh up,” he said. 

“Universities stepped in to help pandemic-hit UK students in both 2020 and 2021. But this year they will struggle to do so on that scale. 

“High inflation has devastated the real value of the fee cap which has now lost a third of its real value since 2012, and most of that in the past two years. 

“With their wage and other costs continuing to rise, many universities will feel compelled to take more higher-fee international students to try to stem these losses, hitting the choice of places for UK students.”

The Government set an ambition to have 600,000 international students studying in the UK by 2030. It reached this in 2020-21, with 605,130 international higher education students at universities, further education colleges, and alternative providers. This was an increase of 109,000 since 2018-19.

Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said: “This is the first truly hard evidence of what we have been predicting for 2023.

“It is a good thing when UK universities are diverse communities with lots of international students, but it is a bad thing that universities now lose money on home students and are therefore actively discouraged from recruiting them. 

“At some point soon, policymakers are going to have to bite the bullet and raise fees or other forms of university funding, or else they will have to accept that university courses will be more actively promoted among people abroad than at home.”

Universities in England have no restrictions on the number of places they can offer to students. However, Russell Group universities are typically constrained by their campuses, student accommodation, and teaching staff.

The Scottish Government places a cap on the number of Scottish students who can attend home institutions, where they do not have to pay tuition fees.

Universities face a backlash if they prioritise more places for foreign students in clearing.

Priti Patel, the former home secretary, said: “Our universities have a responsibility to support and nurture British students in their universities and they should be proud to invest in the next generation of graduates who will contribute to our society and country. 

“These important institutions are recognised and supported by Government to do so, and any suggestion of discrimination against British students should be investigated by my colleagues in Government.”

Iain Mansfield, head of education at Policy Exchange, said: “This is a poor look for universities. 

“International students make a genuine contribution to higher education, but for leading universities to openly favour them over British applicants calls into question the generous subsidies that these universities receive from the taxpayer.”

A spokesman for Glasgow University, which is advertising 655 courses to international students and only 20 to English students, said: “It is simply not true that students from Scotland or elsewhere in the UK lose out on places to colleagues from overseas at the University of Glasgow – the number of Scottish students is determined by the Scottish Funding Council and the university does not have scope to grow these numbers beyond its allocation.”

A Russell Group spokesman said: “The confirmation from Ofqual that grade distributions will return to 2019 levels has given universities more confidence in making offers compared to last year, which may mean they have less flexibility to offer courses in clearing in some subjects.

“However, most Russell Group universities have courses available in clearing this year, as they have done in past years. In addition, after results day more courses will become available across a range of subjects.”

A Durham spokeswoman said: “We are receiving Ucas results under embargo and are making decisions and analysing what places we have to fill both for home and international students.

“Decisions will be made this week and we do expect to open courses to home students.”

She added: “Courses are not made available to international students at the expense of home students.”

A Department for Education spokesman said: “Clearing is a dynamic process and the number of courses in clearing will change over the course of the week.

“Many universities will reopen courses to domestic students on and after results day when more is known about which students have met the terms of their offer.

“The number of home students has risen in recent years and now makes up over three-quarters of undergraduate entrants at Russell Group universities, while the overall number of international undergraduate entrants at these universities has declined in recent years.”

Clearing a ‘last resort’? Nothing could be further from the truth

By Clare Marchant and Vivienne Stern

August is an exciting time in the world of higher education. 

After Scottish results day last week, hundreds of thousands of prospective students across England, Wales and Northern Ireland are now gearing up to receive their grades on Thursday, which will set them up for the next defining step in their education journey – be that through university, college, an apprenticeship or a different pathway altogether.

We know that results day can be an extremely hectic 24 hours, but we want to reassure students and parents that support is available. 

From the moment Ucas opens at 8am, advisers and university admissions teams will be on hand over the phone and online to ensure that all applicants feel confident about their options. 

To help calm nerves further, Ucas has a range of digital tools to help guide students and, for the first time, will this year be sending applicants a personalised email giving them a clear outline of their next steps.

So, what can students – and their families – expect from results day this year? 

With 76.2 per cent of UK 18-year-old applicants holding an offer, our expectation is that the majority of students looking to go to university or college will secure their preferred choice. 

While there has been a lot of focus around demand for places, Ucas data indicates that the trend of a steady rise in people entering university that we saw up until 2020 will continue, and there will only be a slight decline on the unprecedented demand seen during the pandemic

Despite the commentary about increased competition and the possibility that we will see more disappointed students, it’s crucial to bear in mind that applying to university is – and always has been – a competitive process. 

There are several factors influencing this year’s admissions cycle, including growing numbers of 18-year-olds in the UK and that universities have actually increased the number of offers they have made in the run-up to results day, which means they may have fewer places to offer in clearing compared with previous years.

But none of these issues are new and universities have been preparing for these eventualities long in advance.

Admissions teams are skilled professionals, who work throughout the year leading up to this point to ensure that each applicant is given a fair and assessment based on their grades, and personal circumstances. 

They are well aware of the issues each year faces and are extremely practised at ensuring that no student is disadvantaged because of them.

For many, results day is the culmination of 14 years of full-time education and it’s this traditional narrative of teenagers opening envelopes that continues to dominate.

But there are as many different student experiences of results day as there are students and it’s important that, as a sector, we reflect the diversity of these experiences. 

One key aspect of this diverse experience is clearing.

The first thing that springs to mind for many when they think of clearing is “last resort” – missed grades, missed offers, missed opportunities. But this couldn’t be further from the truth. 

In recent years, the purpose and perception of clearing has changed significantly. 

There are more ways into university than ever before and, far from being a place for only those who didn’t get the grades they were hoping for, clearing now offers an array of options for all students. 

This year, there will be about 28,000 courses available in clearing, which will be open from 1pm on Thursday, Aug 17. 

From students who have missed their offers, to those who have exceeded expectations with their grades and are looking for a different route, to those who did not apply to university earlier in the year but have now decided it is the path for them – clearing will be their main port of call. 

Clearing will also again this year offer apprenticeship courses, which have grown massively in popularity over recent years, now representing 40 per cent of all Ucas undergraduate applicants.

We understand that results day can be stressful, even when it goes exactly as planned. And for those students who miss out on their first choice, it can feel even more daunting. 

But we’re here to give reassurance that there will be plenty of courses available right across the university sector – and that you can give yourself the best chance of getting your preferred choice by doing your research in advance of results day, using http://ucas.com  to research all your options, and preparing a Plan B.

Whatever happens next, any student who has made it to this point should be exceptionally proud of themselves. To all students, and their families, friends and carers – good luck, and we’ll see you on the other side.

Clare Marchant is the chief executive of Ucas and Vivienne Stern is the chief executive of Universities UK