West Turns East For Wealth, Again: As Brexit Threatens Fund Crunch, UK Universities Count On Indian, Chinese Students

Indian and Chinese students are expected to be front-runners of the overseas student's influx in Britain universities, as reported by The New Indian Express.

Several Britain universities are facing a ‘funding crunch’ in the wake of Brexit and are expected to recruit higher number of overseas students who apparently pay higher fees than the British counterparts.

"Many universities will try to do this because it will be the only way to respond to a sudden fall in income," said Anton Muscatelli, the vice-chancellor of Glasgow University and chairman of the Russell Group. At the elite universities, the overseas students pay nearly four times as much as UK students.

United Kingdom’s (UK) higher education sector faces ‘a triple whammy’. If the country leaves the European Union (EU) without a deal it would be a ‘catastrophic’ loss of 1.3 billion pounds of EU research funding as well as a collapse in EU student numbers. In addition, a government review is in the offing, which is expected to recommend lowering university fees for undergraduates.

Exeter University is already on the way to boost its overseas students by seven per cent. Meanwhile, in London, the international students already outnumber British ones at London School of Economics (LSE) and Imperial College.

Professor Alan Smithers, of Buckingham University, said that British students may feel increasingly uncomfortable due to dominance of Chinese and Indian students in the universities.