The “kindness of strangers” is a term used to describe a country’s dependence on external investment to fund its current account deficit. Here, it applies to the dependence on international students whose hefty fees are required to keep the universities afloat.
Muscatelli, who is retiring next year, said: “These students come from overseas. They invest in their education. They are happy to do so because it’s one of the best education systems in the world. We benefit, too, because they make our universities more vibrant and widen the horizons of our home students. But we have to ask ourselves: ‘Is this sustainable? And why should [our governments] not properly fund higher education for our own students?’”
In Scotland, where university tuition is free, universities receive around 85p of public funding for every £1 it costs to teach and support their Scottish undergraduates. In the rest of the UK, home students pay fees. But there is still a funding gap, with international students subsidising their British counterparts, particularly when it comes to expensive-to-teach degrees such as medicine, science and law.
Read Dani Garavelli’s full interview with Sir Anton Muscatelli here
Muscatelli said there is also a gap in research funding, with money from the likes of UK Research and Innovation or charities typically covering 70%, while the remaining 30% comes from commercial income and international students.
The reliance on international students has become increasingly controversial with some universities – not Glasgow – accused of lowering standards to boost the numbers and a more general concern about what happens if the market suddenly falls.
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The number of student visa applications in the UK dropped by 16% between July and September this year compared to the same period in 2023 after the Home Office banned international students from bringing family members to live with them.
Muscatelli said: “There is a lot of talk about the need for a review of higher education. My question is: ‘What is it you want to review here?’ My feeling is that [the governments] should start by asking themselves, just as they do with the NHS: ‘What kind of education do we want to offer our kids?’ And then they should fully fund it.
“But, at the very least, they should plug the gap for teaching our undergraduates because that’s what we do as a country for our own kids.”
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Muscatelli said it was up to society to decide whether or not university tuition should be free but that, for now, in Scotland, there appeared to be a consensus in favour.
So long as the Scottish government continued with that policy, he added, a cap on the number of Scottish students was inevitable. But, he pointed out, while some universities and courses are oversubscribed – leading to fierce competition – others fail to fill their places.
“Ultimately I feel it’s up to the government to decide what the right number of places is to meet the skills needs of Scotland, and it can’t be solely determined by student demand,” he said. “If the places are not currently being filled then some of them could be removed, and the money used to address (some of) the 15% gap.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The Scottish Government appreciates the valuable contribution universities make to Scotland’s economy and wider society. That is why we continue to invest over £1 billion in the sector to support the delivery of excellent teaching, research and innovation.
“This funding has protected free tuition, ensuring record numbers of Scots are going to university because of their ability to learn and not their ability to pay. We will continue to work with universities in the coming year on our shared ambitions to widen access to education and to drive world-class research and teaching.”
