Public sector funding for higher education in Scotland has reduced by 12% in real terms in seven years. In addition, despite the policy of free tuition for Scottish students, and a cap on Scottish student numbers, only 90% of the costs of teaching Scottish students at Scottish universities are covered by the Scottish Government. We recognise that this leaves a 10% gap in funding that must be filled via alternative means. The main way Scottish universities fill this gap is through internationa...

Public sector funding for higher education in Scotland has reduced by 12% in real terms in seven years. In addition, despite the policy of free tuition for Scottish students, and a cap on Scottish student numbers, only 90% of the costs of teaching Scottish students at Scottish universities are covered by the Scottish Government. We recognise that this leaves a 10% gap in funding that must be filled via alternative means. The main way Scottish universities fill this gap is through international students, who account for more than 16% of all income across Scottish universities, a large proportion of which comes from Chinese students. As we have Type: conclusion | Number: 3 | Paragraph: 52 | Response status: under_consideration Government response: In February 2021, the UK Government published an update to the International Education Strategy, recommitting to the ambitions of the original strategy. These ambitions are to sustainably increase international students in the UK to 600,000 p