International students with low grades can get onto UK undergraduate degrees via back-door routes: Report
UK’s department of education has opened an investigation after a newspaper investigation found that international students are gaining back-door routes to undergraduate degrees at top British universities with far lower grades than their domestic counterparts require as universities are cash-strapped and need the extra fees they pay. Of the Indian students who come to UK, around 30% enrol in undergraduate programmes.
LONDON: UK’s department of education has opened an investigation after a newspaper investigation found that international students are gaining back-door routes to undergraduate degrees at top British universities with far lower grades than their domestic counterparts require as universities are cash-strapped and need the extra fees they pay. Of the Indian students who come to UK, around 30% enrol in undergraduate programmes. Whilst domestic student fees are capped at £9,250, international students can pay more than £40,000.
The story in the “Sunday Times” involved two undercover reporters posing as parents of international students with poor A level (or equivalent) grades looking for a place at a UK university. They discovered that international students can enter undergraduate degree courses via “international foundation courses”, outside the traditional UCAS (Universities and Colleges Admissions Service) application route. UK universities are paying millions of pounds to recruitment agents, who have offices in India and China, to hunt out students with poor grades who are prepared to pay to study at Russell Group universities.