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Written question asked by Jeremy Lefroy (Conservative) on Tuesday, 5 November 2013, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 8 November 2013 (named day). It was answered by Lord Willetts (Conservative) on Friday, 8 November 2013 on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Overseas Students

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what assessment he has made of the income received by UK universities from international students in each of the last five years.

Answer

The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) publishes data on the sources of income for all publicly-funded higher education institutions in the UK on an annual basis. The latest available data cover the 2011-12 academic year and was published on 7 March 2013:

http://www.hesa.ac.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2712&ltemid=161

The following table shows the fee income received by all publicly-funded UK higher education institutions from international students over the past five years. This includes income from both EU and non-EU students.

Table 1: Fee income from international students
Income (£ billion)
2007-08
 2.1
2008-09
 2.5
2009-10
 2.9
2010-11
 3.3
2011-12
 3.6
Notes:
1. These figures use the latest available HESA Finance Record.
2. Non-EU fee income is taken directly from HESA. EU fee income has been estimated based on fee income from UK and EU students and the equivalent student numbers. Data for 2012-13 will be published by HESA in March 2014.
3. Figures are rounded to the nearest £100 million.

BIS recently published ‘Privately funded providers of higher education in the UK’ (BIS Research Paper 111, June 2013). Findings from this research indicate that international students paid a further £270 million to alternative providers in 2011-12. However, data on alternative providers are not available for earlier years.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
174742; 570 cc396-8W
Session
2013-14
Subjects
Fees and charges Overseas students
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk