UK Universities Not Lowering Entry Requirements for Int’l Students, Review Finds

A review has found there’s no need to raise concerns about UK universities lowering the bar to accept international students to foundation courses, which are one-year programs designed to help international students join university programs taught in English.

Universities UK, the organization representing 142 institutions, commissioned the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) to conduct the review early this year. The review assessed programs at 34 universities that voluntarily participated in the evaluation, Erudera.com reports.

QAA selected 185 programs for evaluation, with 20 different subject areas. It included 2,731 student admission records, over 2,000 pieces of assessed student work, and other documentary evidence.

The report on “Evaluation of International Pathway Programmes” comes after allegations that universities in the United Kingdom have been lowering admission standards for international students because the latter pay higher fees.

The Sunday Times first reported these claims in January, and various media outlets subsequently picked them up. The report highlighted that, unlike domestic students, international students could be admitted to universities with lower grades to help alleviate financial pressures at certain institutions.

Universities denied such claims, saying the report did not make a difference between entry requirements set for students who want to join foundation courses and criteria for full-degree programs.

But, the review said that, in general, universities were keeping the same entry requirements for both domestic and international students. Out of 32 institutions part of the evaluation, 18 stated they have been delivering equivalent domestic programs.

Moreover, out of 20 providers that offered International Foundation Programs, 10 declared they had equivalent domestic programs.

“QAA found that the academic standards of International Foundation Programmes were being set in line with the expectations of a course at that level in the vast majority of cases. QAA also found that students on International Foundation Programmes were achieving at an appropriate level and that marking and assessment were effective in the vast majority of cases,” QAA’s report points out.

However, it also said that international students generally had access to various courses and more opportunities to succeed than A Level/Scottish Higher students.

“International Foundation Programme students generally had more opportunities under more varied conditions to achieve successful progression through, for example, having multiple attempts at assessments, than the opportunities available to A Level/Scottish Higher students,” it adds.

The report included the following recommendations for higher education institutions:

• Regular assessment of international students’ progress on to further study compared to local students.
• Standardizing evaluation practices and rules on International Foundation Programmes.

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