Last Sunday The Times released the results of an investigation of Russell Group universities, revealing that international students (who pay on average £22,000 a year in tuition) need far lower grades to access our most prestigious universities. The investigation was revealed after Universities UK pledged to review their entry requirements and update their admissions code of conduct, underpressure from the British Education Minister.
The “backdoor” that allows international students to avoid the typical grade requirement on UCAS are through pathway courses. Both the International Year One and the International Foundations allow students to do a separate first year to rest of the student body, to then unify in year two. According to The Times, 30% of foreign students (30,000 people) starting at university in Britain are on this program. Edinburgh is not one of the 15 universities which use this program but Durham and Nottingham are. What was is typically an A*AA offer at Durham becomes a CCD offer for pathway students.
Writing as a student, this doesn’t feel like Britain’s best kept secret. The Times captured a video of a recruiter very blatantly discussing the pathway – he felt no need to dance around the subject. Furthermore I don’t think this came as a shock to students attending Russel Group universities.
I’m sure Edinburgh will be feeling very smug to have avoided this scandal. But as I read the Times article criticising the academic integrity of English universities, I can’t help but wince. I’m an English student at a Scottish university. I bring £9,000 to Edinburgh rather than the Scottish rate of £4,000. As a result, I feel fairly confident I received a lower offer on my A-levels. Maybe the same international vs national debate should be extended to Egland vs Scotland (and Ireland and Wales).
Whilst a double standard is never fair, the reality is that uni’s are broke, especially post COVID. Higher fees means more funding, better education and research and improves British reputation. Yet, universities are subsidised by the British government and the money we pay is not being invested back into British students. Maybe a happy medium can be found. But if the cases have got so bad that students are unable to communicate with one another then maybe caps should be implemented. Similarly in Scotland, if Scottish students are feeling outnumbered by an English population then university ratios should be readdressed.
“Red Brick University, Victoria building, Liverpool” by dullhunk is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.