‘British varsities treating foreign students as cash cows’

LONDON - British universities were Friday warned against treating overseas students as “cash cows” to help fill declining coffers.

The head of the British Council, the cultural arm of the foreign ministry, said universities could harm the reputation of British institutions if they recruited more non-European students merely to tackle cuts in their budgets.

Students from outside Europe can be charged full fees - often many times over what universities charge British or European students - but British Council Chief Executive Martin Davidson warned against crude enrolment drives abroad.

International students have more study options today than ever before, and in an internet-connected world, word quickly spreads when it appears that a university regards them as little more than ‘cash cows’, Davidson said at the launch of an international education conference in London.

In today’s rapidly evolving marketplace, overseas governments will react against foreign universities that are clearly interested only in recruiting students from their country and giving nothing in return.

Davidson later said the Council had heard complaints from ambassadors from Gulf countries about the way students are being enrolled and from Chinese students about supposedly international courses that cater to only students from a single nationality.

We are getting comments from Chinese students about courses that are wholly Chinese and (how they) are having difficulty integrating, Davidson said.

The British Council fears a funding squeeze combined with a cap on the number of places that can be offered to home students will encourage universities to recruit from outside Europe.

The number of students from outside Europe studying in Britain rose from 117,290 in 1989-99 to 229,640 in 2007-08.