Universities in the United Kingdom (UK) are faced with the risk of a financial crisis following a sharp drop in the number of international students enrolling at various institutions in 2024. 

According to the Financial Times, enrollment into UK varsities has fallen by over a one-third from key countries, including Nigeria and India. 

Following the announcement by UK authorities to stop international students from bringing in dependents on their study visa, there is panic amongst UK universities that they might fall into deficit as foreign student enrollment drops. 

A sharp drop in international students, especially Nigerians and Indians, has left the education industry experts worried about the future. 

Vivienne Stern, chief executive of Universities UK (UUK), a body which represents over 140 universities, explained that the current situation in the sector mirrors that of a “serious overcorrection” caused by immigration policies stopping international students from coming to study in Britain.  

“If they want to cool things down, that’s one thing, but it seems to me that through a combination of rhetoric, which is off-putting, and policy changes . . .[they have] really turned a whole bunch of people off that would otherwise have come to the UK,” Ms Stern told the Financial Times. 

Ms Stern explained that the UK government needs to wake up to the risk posed to a sector that contributes £71 billion annually to the UK economy. 

She proposed that three interventions were necessary to reverse the coming calamity and put the sector on a stable footing. 

Ms Stern argued that uprating tuition fees in line with inflation, increasing government teaching grants, and stabilising the international market by dialling down negative rhetoric and ending question marks over the graduate route would do the trick. 

Some top universities are forced to soften their entry requirements to maintain the number of international students. 

Since domestic tuition fees have been frozen for the past 10 years, UK universities have increasingly relied on international students to make ends meet. 

Fees from international students now account for nearly 20 per cent of the sector income, with the domestic tuition fee frozen at £9,250 for over a decade. 

A senior university insider told the Financial Times that the entire sector had been shocked by the data showcasing the number of international students enrolling in schools in 2024. The data revealed the number to be way below everyone’s projections for the year. 

Earlier this month, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced new immigration policies barring international graduate students from bringing family members to the UK. 

In December, he also announced that the government was reviewing the so-called “graduate route”, enabling international students to work in the UK for two years. 

Data from Enroly, a web platform used by a high percentage of international students for managing university enrollment, showed that deposit payments were down 37 per cent compared to last year. 

PwC consultants analysed the UUK situation and found that a combination of falling international student numbers, frozen tuition fees, rising staff wage bills, and a softening in UK student numbers had the sector facing fresh troubles. 

Meanwhile, higher education minister Robert Halfon explained the need to balance immigration policies and attract international students. 

“We are fully focused on striking the right balance between acting decisively to tackle net migration, which we are clear is far too high, and attracting the brightest students to study at our universities,” Mr Halfon said. 

Last year, the number of Nigerian students studying in the UK hit an eight-year high of 44,195, according to official data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).