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One of Scotland’s leading universities hopes to recruit more than 1000 additional overseas students over the next few years to stave off the impact of crippling budget cuts and increase the institution’s international profile.
Glasgow University said the increase – which would net the institution millions of pounds in revenue – would be concentrated on both postgraduate and undergraduate courses.
The university already has a population of 2500 international students, but its principal, Professor Anton Muscatelli, said he was targeting at least 3500 in future years.
“One of the elements about our current strategy is that we want to be a global university,” he said.
“One important dimension of that is that we want to be able to continue to attract academically talented students from around the world.
“We have grown, over the last few years, the number of students coming from outside the EU to about 2500 and we would like to grow that further to 3500 or so over the next few years, possibly more, through development of more postgraduate courses, but also through increased recruitment at undergraduate level.”
Mr Muscatelli stressed there was no impact on home students from the university recruiting additional overseas students because of the way the Scottish system is funded.
The number of home students is tightly regulated by the Scottish Funding Council, but universities can recruit as many overseas students as they like.
The move comes at a difficult time for Scottish universities, with uncertainty over future income and dire warnings over the impact of cuts to public funding.
In a recent letter to staff, Glasgow University forecast it would run out of money by 2013 unless action was taken to raise income and make savings – amounting to £20 million.
Shortfalls of this magnitude could even force some institutions to close, while academics fear further redundancies and course cuts.
The move to capitalise on the lucrative market in overseas students has become a familiar theme for Scottish universities in recent years.
In 2000, there were just 7395 postgraduates from outside the UK in Scotland, but this number has risen to more than 15,000 in recent years.
The increase has been largely fuelled by an influx from outside Europe, as universities court talented students from the Far East, Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Because such students pay full fees at a market rate – with the annual cost of some courses reaching £12,000 – the financial benefit to universities is marked.
Other universities have tried to cash in, with Glasgow Caledonian entering into an agreement with a private provider to recruit overseas students and prepare them for degree level-study.
The institution has also opened a satellite branch in London in an attempt to take advantage of the market there.
However, lecturers’ union UCU Scotland has warned about the impact of too large an influx, arguing that there is a possibility universities will start “skewing” what they offer to suit overseas students, rather than home students.
It has also warned against universities becoming too reliant on the fees of overseas students, with a spokesman saying: “Countries such as China and India are building huge universities and there is a danger that, as students go to universities in their own countries, the market will suddenly collapse.” |
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