'No concerns' about foreign students' entry grades

A review has found “no concerns” that universities are watering down entry requirements for international students applying to foundation courses.

It follows accusations that universities had been lowering standards to recruit overseas students, who pay higher fees.

The review said entry requirements were broadly the same for international students and UK students on equivalent courses.

However, it found those from overseas had more opportunities to resit exams than A-level students.

Universities UK, which represents 142 institutions, commissioned the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) to carry out the review in February.

QAA assessed programmes at 34 universities that volunteered to take part.

It said it had “no concerns that providers were not following their published entry requirements”, and that those for international programmes were similar to equivalent courses for UK students.

QAA said that in the “vast majority of cases”, students on both types of courses “were achieving at an appropriate level”.

However, it said international students had a greater choice of courses, and on foundation programmes had “more opportunities” to succeed through resit than A-level or Scottish Higher students.

Its recommendations for universities include:

• regularly assessing how many international students progress on to further study, compared with domestic students
• standardising assessment practices and rules on international foundation programmes

Vivienne Stern, chief executive of Universities UK, said the number of students on these programmes “represents a small proportion of the two million undergraduates studying in our universities”, but that the review was important to give students "confidence that university admissions processes are fair".

She said "swift action" was needed in some areas and Universities UK would update its code of practice for fair admissions.

The Russell Group said its universities were "committed to fair admissions and delivering high-quality courses".

Media coverage at the start of the year included a Sunday Times report, which claimed international students were using "secret routes" to "buy their way in" to Russell Group universities.

In response, the group of 24 prestigious universities said the reporting referred to foundation year programmes for international students which had been "incorrectly conflated" with degree programmes - adding that foundation year programmes were also available for UK students.

Universities can get more money from international students because their tuition fees are not capped like those of domestic students.

An increase in the number of international students over recent years has been driven by applications for postgraduate degrees, like master's degrees, according to migration research from the University of Oxford - rather than the undergraduate courses studied by many 18-year-olds in the UK.