SNP claim universities are being sidelined by Rishi Sunak's 'anti-migrant' agenda - is the criticism fair?

The SNP has claimed universities are being sidelined by Rishi Sunak's “anti-migrant”, agenda, but the truth is rather more concerning.

It follows David Cameron writing to Rishi Sunak warning that universities will face job losses and even closure if he pushes ahead with curbs to graduate visas, with the Prime Minister considering only allowing the “best and brightest” in.

Lord Cameron says this will lead to financial difficulties, job losses, closures and reductions in research. On this area, if not others, the SNP agree with him.

The SNP have warned institutions like the University of Edinburgh are at risk.

Carol Monaghan, the party’s education spokesperson, said the existence of universities was at threat, all to “placate the far-right” of the Tory party.

She said: “The UK government should remove international students from overall net migration statistics – as they do in Canada, Australia and the US – and stop pursuing reactionary policies driven by a determination to simply ‘cut numbers’”.

This argument focuses on the importance of international students, who are vital to university funding. Only about a quarter of university funding comes from domestic students, with lower totals for Scottish institutions. The rest comes from the higher fees paid by international students, government grants, charitable donations and investments.

As such, the SNP are right to echo Lord Cameron’s warnings. International students enrich universities culturally, as well as financially. This is partly why you see so many universities set up campuses in Asia, or creating hubs especially for students from abroad.

Speaking to those in the sector, they detail a constant threat of cuts, a total lack of support in Government, and now worry the “sticking plaster” of international student fees is about to be ripped off.

It’s just one part of the issue, however, with universities facing a wider funding crisis largely ignored by politicians. One source, who works in university funding, argued foreign students were important, but universities had become over-reliant on them.

This was, in part, down to a lack of support in Whitehall, and the raising of tuition fees. By raising the threshold at which graduates begin to repay loans, many do not reach the earnings threshold to begin to make payments. Students from England graduate with the highest debt in the world. HEPI, the UK's only think-tank focusing on higher education, says policy has repeatedly had unintended and adverse impacts on different groups of students and graduates.

In England, the average cost to the taxpayer per student in 2023/24 stands at only about £1,630, compared to £9,130 in Scotland, where fees are different. Put simply, this is nowhere near enough.

This is why universities rely on their endowments, used to invest and make themselves more money, but the range between those at the top and those not is absurd.

Cambridge has around £7.802 billion, according to its latest reports, Oxford £5.06bn. The University of Edinburgh, hardly an academic slouch, has £559.8 million. At Aberdeen, it’s just £58.6m.

Universities across the UK are crying out for more funding, and have sought to adapt as their cause has fallen down the pecking order in Westminster. Foreign student numbers are one of the few resources they have left.