Maddalaine Ansell, Chief Executive of University Alliance – Britain’s universities for cities and regions – welcomed the new survey commissioned by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) and the Higher Education Academy (HEA) which reveals that students believe they benefit in many ways from studying alongside people from other countries.
She said:
“Our universities offer excellent courses (some of which are ranked the best in the world) with a strong focus on job-readiness. These courses appeal to international students. In turn, working alongside international students greatly enhances the experience of the UK students at our universities.
“We welcome this HEPI and HEA report which provides further evidence that international students are intrinsic to the quality of UK higher education. They add to the cultural life of universities and some courses (particularly STEM taught masters) depend on international students to run. International graduates are also great for the wider UK economy. We will be following the work of the Prime Minister’s new immigration task group closely. Bringing net migration down to the ‘tens of thousands’ will have an impact on the numbers of international students – affecting the attractiveness of our universities and reducing the skills available to the UK economy.”
