Why Britain puts off foreign students
Britain's share of the international market in higher education is falling. Much of the blame can be laid on successive decisions at the Department for Education and Skills and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The international market in higher education is huge. According to a report released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development yesterday, universities in OECD countries are now educating nearly 2m students who are foreign to the countries in which they are studying. That figure is rising by 7 per cent a year, and, since each student is paying fees in excess of ￡7,000 a year and is spending a further ￡7,000 annually on board and lodging, the impact on national economies is significant. Thus the British Council estimates that by 2010 the UK could be earning ￡13bn a year from international students.
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But that income is looking increasingly vulnerable. The problem is that Britain's share of the OECD countries' international students is falling. In 1998 it was 16 per cent but by 2002 (the last year for which the OECD has data) the share had fallen to only 12 per cent. To be fair, the total market is growing so fast that the fall in student share does not obscure an absolute rise in numbers, but the trends are worrying.
One big problem is cost. Our four main competitors are the US (30 per cent of the OECD's international students), Germany (12 per cent), Australia (10 per cent) and France (9 per cent). A key factor in our loss of market share to those competitors is that, for international students, they are simply less expensive. In part that is for a good reason, namely the strength of the pound, but there are other, less creditable, reasons.
Fees in the UK are now noticeably higher than elsewhere - elite US “ivy league” universities apart. And the reason for those high fees is discreditable indeed. Because the UK government has, over the last two decades, halved in real terms the support it provides for each British student, the universities now milk foreigners in order to cross-subsidise home students. Yet if such a policy deters foreign students such that our total income from them falls, we will price ourselves out of an important market.
Even worse, standards are falling. British universities were once recognised as the best in the world, but during the past 20 years student-to-staff ratios have doubled. Foreign students increasingly resent paying full price to sit in huge classes dominated by a mass of free-riding Britons. Under government pressure to widen access, British universities also admit people with low qualifications; international students dislike associating with poorly qualified domestic entrants.
The new Office of Fair Access, and the new moves to discriminate in favour of working class, ethnic and other minority students whose educational attainments are poor, will raise further doubts over the quality of a British university education. And how is it that, as the number of students admitted to university continues to rise, the grade of their degrees also rises? Firsts and 2.1s are now standard, and degree inflation is widely suspected. These suspicions do not encourage foreigners to apply to the UK.
Nor does the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. International students require visas to study here and there is widespread unhappiness over the way our embassies, high commissions and consulates handle visa applicants. As one UK university admissions officer told me: “To the FCO, all visa applicants are guilty until proven innocent.”
The problem is visa fraud. Foreigners on study visas sometimes slip into the underground economy on arrival here. Consequently, our entry clearance officers must treat all visa applicants with care. But that care is all too often reflected in an unfriendly and sometimes even hostile attitude. Moreover, delays are frequent. In some countries applicants have to wait up to three months before learning if their applications have been successful. No one wants to foster illegal economic migration, but the FCO needs more resources and a change in attitude. Fundamentally, though, the problem with our universities lies not with the FCO but with the DfES, which has for too long starved them of funds. That is why I must applaud the current government for forcing through top-up fees, because such fees will enrich and thus improve the universities, and consequently attract more students to Britain.
As with most problems in postwar Britain, freer markets will reverse the relative decline of our universities and our share of the world's international students.
The writer is vice-chancellor of the
University of Buckingham
英国为什么让外国留学生止步?
英国为什么会让外国留学生止步？英国在国际高等教育市场中的占有率正在下降。这在很大程度上应归咎于英国教育与技能部(DfES)和外交部(FCO)做出的一系列决定。国际高等教育市场非常广阔。昨天，经济合作和发展组织(OECD，以下简称为“经合组织”)公布的一份报告称，经合组织成员国的大学现有外国留学生近200万人。这个数字每年正以7%的速度递增。而且，由于每位学生一年支付的学费超过7000英镑，另外加上每年7000英镑的膳宿费，这对国内经济的影响可谓举足轻重。因此，英国文化协会预计，到2010年，英国每年从国际学生身上获得的收入可达130亿英镑。
但现在，这笔收入似乎越来越容易受到影响。问题是英国在经合组织成员国国际学生中的比重正在逐年下降：1998年为16%，但到2002年（经合组织有数据可查的最近一年），仅为12%。公正地来说，整个市场发展速度十分迅猛，虽然英国所吸引的国际学生的比例在下降，但是到英国留学学生的绝对数字在增长，但这种发展趋势令人担忧。
成本是一个大问题。我们的四大竞争对手包括美国（占经合组织国际学生的30%），德国（12%），澳大利亚（10%）和法国（9%）。对国际学生来说，这些国家的留学费用要低许多，这是我们的市场份额被竞争对手抢去的一个重要因素。从一定程度上来说，坚挺的英磅是其中一个理由，但此外还有一些不太光彩的原因。
现在，英国学费比其它国家高出许多，但不包括美国“常青藤联合会”的精英大学在内。而且，高额学费的原因其实并不光彩。在过去的20年中，英国政府实际上将对每位本国学生的资助减少了一半。因此，英国大学现在对外国学生收缴高额学费，目的是为了补贴本国学生。然而，如果这种政策令海外学生却步，从而导致我们这部分的总收入减少，那么我们将会因此付出代价，结果是我们在这个重要的市场中出局。
更为糟糕的是，英国的教育水准也有所下降。英国大学曾被公认为世界上最好的大学，但是在过去的20年里，学生与教职工之比增加了一倍。外国学生越来越感到气愤，自己花了一大笔钱上学，然而同一班级的英国学生不用花一分钱。在政府要求降低入学门槛的压力下，英国大学也准许成绩较差的学生入学。外国学生不喜欢与资质不好的国内学生为伍。
新的“公平入学办公室”的成立，加上对学习成绩较差的体力劳动阶层、少数族裔学生的特别优待，将使英国大学的教育质量更受质疑。而且，随着大学入学人数的持续增长，他们的学位等级也随之上升，这会怎么样？优等生和较优等生已十分平常，而且“学位的通货膨胀”也广受质疑，而这些都会影响外国学生申请英国大学的热情。
外交部也是一样。国际学生需要学生签证才能来英国学习，他们在申请签证时与我们的大使馆、和领事馆发生了许多不愉快的事情。正如一位英国大学招生负责人告诉我的：“对外交部来说，所有申请签证的学生在被证明清白前都是有罪的。”
问题在于签证的欺诈行为。有时，获得学生签证的外国人在抵达英国后就“打黑工”。因此，我们的签证处官员在处理所有签证申请时必须十分谨慎，但这种谨慎时常表现为一种不友好、有时甚至是敌对的态度。此外，拖拉是家常便饭。在有些国家，申请人必须等上3个月才能知道他们的申请是否成功。没人想要助长非法商业移民之风，但外交部需要投入更多的人力物力，并转变态度。
但是，从根本上来说，我们大学现有的问题并不在于外交部，而是英国教育与技能部，因为是它令学校资金短缺情况持续了很长时间。这就是为什么我必须称赞现政府强行让英国学生付一定学费的做法，因为这些钱将使学校有雄厚的资金改善学校，从而吸引更多的学生来英国留学。
随着市场的开放，战后英国的大部分问题得到解决。同样，一个更加自由的市场也将扭转我们大学相对退步的趋势，并提高我们在全球国际学生市场中的占有率。
