Are all British students going abroad?
It’s always sunny in Groningen
You’d be forgiven for thinking that most students from the UK were packing their bags to head off to continental universities rather than studying in the UK.
This recent BBC story from @SeanCoughlan covers the choice made by some British students to study in the Netherlands:
The historic city of Groningen has got all the things you’d expect from somewhere picturesque and Dutch – canals, bridges and bikes.
If there is any graffiti, it’s almost certainly going to be in perfectly punctuated English.
But what it also has is hundreds of students from the UK – and the number is rising.
This is the university application season for UK students – and open day visits now include trips to Dutch universities, which are pitching themselves as if they were offshore Russell Group institutions.
Since tuition fees rose to £9,000 in England there have been repeated forecasts that students would head for cheaper European universities.
Now it seems to be actually happening.
This is a regular university story in the media. You can see why it’s attractive as a narrative with UK students choosing the cultural delights of a historic continental city over the grim functionality of a northern redbrick, say.
Part of the line here is that it is somehow terrible that any student should wish to leave the UK. Put another way: British universities must be failing badly if ANY British students choose to study overseas. Either that or it is a result of the English fee regime. Whichever way you look at it, the news is all bad.
Except for the nice bits that is because what is particularly noticeable in this piece is that the parents are undoubtedly very keen. You can imagine them thinking about the joys of visiting their offspring in another country in a beautiful ancient city for a weekend break via Eurostar. This looks rather more attractive than a wet Wednesday at the Travelodge in Leeds.
Whilst some universities will rightly be concerned that some particularly able students are choosing universities in the US or on the continent the numbers involved remain very, very small. See this (only slightly dated) chart on student movement away from the UK:
Students leaving the UK
As this graphic from the British Council shows for every British student who travels abroad over 15 come to the UK to study. That sounds like a pretty good ratio to me. Put it another way, if we were talking about this in terms of sporting popularity, international student recruitment would be as all consuming as football whereas outward mobility from the UK would carry all the national profile and excitement of lawn bowls.
So what should we make then of the exodus from the UK? It really is much less significant than the media reports suggest. What is perhaps more remarkable is how small these outbound numbers are despite the surges and the huge percentage growth year on year. British students still seem extremely reluctant to venture abroad to study. Although according to the British Council data, 5 of them did make it to Mongolia a couple of years ago which does show some endeavour at least.
Having recently returned from the AUA study tour to the Netherlands, we were surprised how few English students had been taking advantage of the fantastic facilities and affordable fees in the Netherlands (€2000/year). But we must remember it is only Masters courses that are almost all taught in English. Many bachelor’s programmes are only taught in Dutch, & my personal view is that undergraduate study & national identity are keenly linked, and only a small proportion have the advanced social capital and elite background to approach this decision from a global perspective. (And of course home study preference is reinforced by the UCAS cycle)
Really good points John, thank you.
Not to mention that the numbers coming to UK universities from the rest of the EU are large and growing. And of course it never is mentioned.
I was on the AUA Study Tour with John and have done some work on the subject after getting back. Taking students of full-degree courses, there are at least 1,000 more Dutch coming our way than going in the other direction. However, the number of UK students taking degrees at Dutch universities now outnumbers the French in Dutch universities (who often don’t like programmes taught in English). Latest figures show c2,600 UK students on degrees in Netherlands. (And the legally regulated fee this year is 1951 Euro.) It is growing and all that I have heard suggests that many British students have a great time.
Thanks David for this. I’m sure those who go abroad do, on the whole, have a fantastic experience!
Almost as common as the mainstream media articles suggesting impending brain drain are the follow-up commentaries arguing that UK outbound mobility has been blown out of all proportion. While I would not suggest for one instant that you are incorrect in this assessment, it might be a tiny bit complacent for two reasons: one, it isn’t necessarily a sign of strength for British universities that so few British students go abroad. We really should be encouraging those British students who want to go abroad to go for it and minimising the obstacles they face. This doesn’t need to be seen as a value judgement on British universities; and two, while it is of course easy to report double or even triple digit percentage growth when starting from a low base, for some Dutch universities the UK now represents the third largest source of international students. The number of courses taught in English at UG level is growing all the time, particularly at those universities that could be regarded as “Russell Group” equivalent. I would suggest that the day on which there are more Brits studying in the Netherlands than Dutch in the UK is not too far off but we definitely are not there yet.
When Mr Coughlan’s article appeared 10 days ago we received four times as many visitors as usual to our http://www.studyinholland.co.uk website. All indications so far suggest that 2016 will be the biggest year yet for UK outbound full degree seeking mobility but even this will not have much of an impact on British universities’ recruitment. Should the Chancellor of the Exchequer be minded to tinker further with the terms and conditions of student loan repayments then you might find this trend accelerates far quicker than any BBC journalist could facilitate.
Fascinating comment – thank you
I’m responsible for recruiting students from the UK to study at the University of Groningen. It’s been interesting to recruit from a region that isn’t in the traditional sense a mobile market. The conversations with students and parents cover every thought imaginable, from language barriers to employability.
The comment in the article which states: “British universities must be failing badly if ANY British students choose to study overseas. Either that or it is a result of the English fee regime. Whichever way you look at it, the news is all bad.”
I was quite overwhelmed with this statement. Why is a British university failing if a UK student studies abroad? I’m pretty sure you’re not suggesting Chinese universities are failing because a million Chinese students opt to study outside of their home country…
Graduates who have attained a degree from a different country showcase a whole different set of skills and look very desirable on the job market. The British Council are working hard to encourage at least some element of study abroad in a UK degree because of this fact.
The tuition fee hike in the UK was of a huge benefit to the University of Groningen however I visit schools with Canadian and US universities who charge triple the UK fees, which shows that cost isn’t the only factor.
Ultimately it’s about the student having choices and I don’t think any university is to blame for loosing a student to another university, let alone if it is in a different country.
I think we shouldn’t play the blame game, but just be proud of students (around the world) who are making the right choice for themselves. It doesn’t matter if that’s at home or abroad.
Thanks for the comments Jemma. In making the comment you quote here I was representing (and exaggerating) the position adopted by some newspaper commentators when covering the fact that some British students do go abroad. I don’t believe this myself! At Nottingham we work really hard to encourage and support our students to spend time abroad as part of their programmes and many of them do.
Thanks again for taking the time to write.