British policy on foreign student fees ‘inadequate’

Press, 3 December 1982, Page 26

British policy on foreign student fees ‘inadequate’

NZPA London British policy concerning foreign student fees was inadequate and had serious consequences, having already cut overseas student enrolments by 25 per cent since 1980, a committee created at last year’s Commonwealth heads of government meeting has found. The Commonwealth Standing Committee on student mobility reports that although Britain continues to attract by far the largest number of Commonwealth students, its fees are well above those of other Commonwealth countries and much more than they need be. In 1980 the British Government began, without warning, to charge foreign students the average of total university student costs. Aus-

tralian fees, by comparison, were less than half the average student cost. Commonwealth countries generally were increasing fees more frequently and by greater amounts than before, but none so much as Britain, the committee found. “Explained by a Government spokesman initially as being only an inescapable component of its strategy to reduce public expenditure, the full cost fees policy was evidently hastily devised also to give the Government more effective control over the number of overseas students admitted by British institutions, previous measures having proved a failure,” the committee said. “The possibility that other Commonwealth countries may follow Britain’s example to the full arouses

considerable apprehension and anxiety among us." The committee supported an independent report which estimated that by charging students only the additional cost created by their enrolment, Britain could cut its fee by one third to a half. Fees charged at present were £2700 (SNZ6O2I) for an arts course and up to £6600 ($NZ13,380) a year for clinical medicine, in comparison, Australian students were charged £llOO (5NZ2453) a year for undergraduate studies generally and £l3OO (SNZ2B99) for medicine. The committee recommended that Britain cut its fees for overseas students by about one half and that, in future, Commonwealth countries set increases for foreign student fees only after consultations.