Bis research paper number 128 The wider benefits of international higher education in the uk

2. Context: UK international higher 
education 
2.1 Growth of international HE in the UK 
The existence of a non-UK contingent among the domestic university population is far from 
new, as the UK’s medieval universities taught a multinational student cohort and such 
student ‘visitors’ have been a part of universities’ development and expansion ever since.
Since the end of World War II, when UK universities hosted about 6,000 non-UK students, 
there has been spectacular growth in the number and proportion of international students 
within the UK HE system. There was continued growth through the three decades 
following WWII (with 34,000 in 1973, and 88,000 in 1979), reflecting a belief in and 
increasing understanding of the soft diplomacy associated with subsidised higher 
education for non-UK students, which held until the constrained public sector finances of 
the 1970s intervened.
In response to a perceived need for more places to be made available to home students, 
as well as the national financial backdrop of the 1970s which raised doubts as to whether 
subsidised fees for non-UK citizens was still a valid and sustainable policy, higher ‘full-
cost’ fees were introduced in 1981 for non-UK (subsequently non-EU) students. This was 
also consistent with the free market ideology that was driven across the economy at that 
time. Predictably, the numbers of non-UK students declined and it progressively became 
clear to the HE sector and universities that instead of selecting international students they 
had to recruit them, and that such recruitment required marketing. The British Council, 
working with (then) DfES and HE sector representatives, subsequently developed the 
concept of marketing British tertiary education as a discrete product (an ‘education 
export’); this also led to establishing the Education UK brand. 
During the 1980s the government began to increase targeted support for overseas 
students, providing a number of scholarships (including Chevening) which were aimed at 
selected groups of international applicants, to foster soft diplomacy and reinforce UK 
overseas development assistance priorities. Between 1984 and 2011/12 (the last year for 
which there is currently published enrolment data by HESA) there were increases in 
international student enrolments across all UK university mission groups (Figure 1).
Currently, the UK’s HE system is a destination of choice for international students globally, 
with 435,235 international students enrolled in UK HE institutions in 2011/12, Of these, 
132,550 were from (non-UK) EU countries and 302,680 non-EU countries. They made up 
13% of first-degree undergraduates, 46% of all taught postgraduates and 41% of all 
research postgraduates in UK HE institutions in that year, with non-UK students 
comprising almost 12% of the UK’s total student population (HESA, 2012). These data 
exclude international students in private HE institutions and some colleges, and shorter-
term exchange students, so the full total is higher still. 
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The Wider Benefits of International Higher Education in the UK