That's the question being asked in a couple of articles in the Times Higher this week, as annual research on overseas student fees by a former LSE academic shows that the average fees for classroom and lab-based courses have gone up by an inflation-busting 5.6% and 6.1% respectively in the last year. CPI-measured inflation for the same period stands at 3.2% and there are worries that should the trend continue overseas students could be deterred from coming to study in the UK.
Dominic Scott, chief executive of the UK Council for International Student Affairs said that "with these sort of increases, institutions are going to have to invest even more (in improving the student experience) to continue to attract good numbers". UUK chief executive Nicola Dandridge insisted that UK HE was still "clearly competitive", but Sir Drummond Bone, former v-c at Liverpool thinks that other factors may play a role in the current demand such as reputation and low living costs due to the weak pound.
The Times Higher says that "Martin Davidson, chief executive of the British Council, felt compelled to admit recently that even after 13 years of healthy public investment in higher education, some overseas students in the UK 'are not having as good an experience as they expect', and to warn the sector not to see them as mere 'cash cows'". The article points out that despite the threat of cuts and the year-on-year increas in fees, the UK market share in overseas students is currently holding, but for how much longer?