Why Are International Students So Important to the University?

60 percent of students at the University of Sunderland come from abroad and the university needs it to survive. How does it do it and why do so many come here?

Head of International Development, Jamie Simpson

Many traditional universities gain finances through research, but with Sunderland predominantly being a teaching university, they need the money generated by international students. When asked how the university do this, Jamie Simpson, head of international development at Sunderland, said: “Partly because we have a strategy to do that” He then continued by saying: “We have quite a large team here in the UK, both based in Sunderland, and we have colleagues at our London campus who help us with it as well.”

“And then overseas, we have nine offices with, I think, something 60, 70 staff who support the university to help us do that. So in short, our network enables us to do so.”

“A lot of our income comes from international students. You’ll have seen in the press, around the kind of dilemma the university has with home students and the amount of money each home student pays. It’s been quite restricted for a number of years. Home student fee payers hasn’t increased, so it has not increased with inflation. So that then leaves a deficit.”

“We’re a modern university, so predominantly a teaching university. So what that means for Sunderland, international students remain probably one of our biggest sources of income, and to add to that, the way we look at recruitment at Sunderland is that the Northeast is a smaller region compared to others. The home recruitment market is quite difficult, and it’s never going to really grow massively for the university.”

Diversity also plays a huge role in the experience for the individual at the university and what a lot of them look for, as Jamie said, is a “global experience” as they use a move abroad as a stepping stone to move onto the next chapter in their lives.

“They’re looking to take our UK degree, and then they are quite open to working everywhere in the world. Having a UK degree and going back home to India or Nigeria instantly puts you up a significant sort of pecking order.”

“Places like the Middle East are very popular. They’ll employ people having an international degree, like a UK degree, again, slots you straight into a pretty good career pretty quickly. So actually, a lot of our students come because of the reputation. And the fact that they’re in a global classroom with lots of people from other parts of the world, including the UK, is quite attractive to them because they’re looking to absorb and they’ll learn of those people. They want that global exposure.”

A lot of our home students, generally their first port of call when looking for a job is, ‘Can I find something in Sunderland? Can I find something in the Northeast? If not I’ll go a bit further, Leeds and Manchester’ and stuff like that. Where our international students, some of them will go, ‘Well, I want to go work in America.’ They’re looking for something very different from what our home students are.”

One of the top attractors for international degrees is Sunderland’s pharmacy degree, and many international students choose it for the convenience as well as experience.

International Student, Mohamed Ghanem, playing for the Sunderland Spartans

A student on the pharmacy degree, from Canada, Mohamed Ghanem said:” I had already known since my last year in high school that I wanted to do pharmacy. After looking into programs within Canada, I found that I would have needed two years minimum of pre pharmacy university studies to enter a Canadian program. However, me and my family were ambitious enough to look for direct entry programs abroad.”

“During the search, we had heard about the university of Sunderland. Considering the tuition costs and the price of living, it seemed like the most suitable option for me.”

“The main reason why I went was so I could finish my education in pharmacy fast enough to build my career back home.”

However, another problem the university faces in the rise of ReformUK and how, even though not in power, are changing our political landscape… but is it as big of a problem as we think for universities that rely on immigration? Here’s what Jamie had to say if they were to be elected.

“I think obviously it’s a big if because we’re a few years away.”

“What I would say is the last probably, twelve months have been quite interesting because the Labour government, in trying to compete with Reform, have become a lot more sterner with their immigration policies, so they’ve started to make it quite tricky.”

“A couple of weeks ago, they announced what we call the visa break. Where they announced four countries where they basically said, ‘we’re not going to give student visas anymore’. Now, that’s not something the Labour government had ever done so it’s quite interesting that the Labour government are trying to sort of appease the voters that are more likely to drift in the direction of Reform.”

“The income generated by international students, not just us in Sunderland, but nationally, it’s absolutely massive. So not just the tuition income into the university, but housing into the city. All of the students come and spend money in the restaurants, in the supermarkets, using transport.”

“If Reform tried to be too stiff on the international students, I think what you would get is universities really kicking back.”

“Not just kind of complaining about it. I think you would get some really, really pushing hard around. ‘Look, you’re really causing us a problem here.’, but there are some universities that are so hugely reliant on international students.”