Nottingham introduces ‘reduced offers’ for international students

A second university in the UK’s Russell Group is to begin allowing international students to enrol with lower entry grades than would usually be allowed.

Earlier this month it emerged that the University of York had told staff to take a “more flexible approach” to students who missed their offer grades.

“In response to the current financial challenges, the university has decided to lower its tariff for all departments and programmes for overseas applicants,” an email quoted by the Financial Times said.

Now the University of Nottingham says that it, too, is “introducing reduced international offers for a limited number of undergraduate courses”. It goes on to say: “We hope to increase the number of participating undergraduate courses in this scheme for the 2025 application cycle and beyond.” A standard offer at the institution is A*AA or equivalent.

“In order to recognise the differences that international students may face when studying overseas, and help to overcome any obstacles that our international fee status applicants may experience, we are able to offer additional support to allow these students to reach their potential and thrive at our world-class university,” Nottingham says on its website.

The moves have been seen as a sign of the financial challenges facing even leading English universities, as a frozen domestic tuition fee forces institutions to pivot towards more lucrative overseas learners.

In its latest accounts, Nottingham admits that its strategy is to “gradually increase the mix of international students as a proportion of total students, a strategy which will gradually grow tuition fee income but maintain the overall size of the student population”.

The accounts show that Nottingham’s cash inflow from operating activities fell from £109 million in 2021-22 to £27.2 million last year. Meanwhile, analysis of recent figures from the admissions service Ucas shows that Nottingham accepted 835 international applicants on to undergraduate courses in 2023 – 12 per cent less than the year before.

Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said reduced offers could increase fairness among international students.

But, he added, there was “a real reputational risk to the whole university sector if it looks like British applicants are being squeezed out and replaced one-for-one with extra international students”.

A Nottingham spokesperson said contextual offers allowed it to identify talented students who had personal circumstances that might have impacted on their grades.

“We attract some of the brightest and most able students to the University of Nottingham and are committed to supporting them to realise their potential while they are here,” they added.

Details of the Nottingham case emerged after UK sector leaders denied claims that international students are buying their way into leading universities with lower grades than UK applicants.

An investigation by The Sunday Times secretly filmed representatives of Russell Group institutions discussing “back door” routes used to recruit overseas students, who pay much higher tuition fees than their UK counterparts.

The report claimed that foreign students can buy their way on to degree courses with as little as a handful of C grades at GCSE, while British students would need A or A* grades at A level.

But universities said that the report failed to distinguish between entry requirements for full degrees and those of international foundation years, which are designed to prepare students for degree-level study but do not guarantee entry.

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com