UK universities offer up to £8,000 tuition discounts as Indian, foreign enrolments fall

At least 22 universities are now offering automatic discounts to international postgraduate students, according to the Financial Times. Unlike the smaller scholarships that were usually given to students based on academic performance, many of these new discounts are being offered automatically. Students do not have to apply separately or prove that they are among the top performers. 

The University of Aberdeen is offering international postgraduate students an automatic £8,000 reduction in their tuition fees. The university is at the same time planning to cut around 100 jobs as part of a £10 million savings programme. 

The University of Nottingham is offering every international master’s student a £3,000 discount. It is expected to cut more than 600 jobs and has replaced an earlier scholarship that required students to meet academic criteria. 

The University of Kent is offering an automatic £5,000 discount this September to students from 14 countries, 12 of them in Asia. From September 2027, the university plans to make the discount available to all international applicants. 

Universities are now competing on price 

Speaking to FT, Julian Westwood, director of S Squared Insights, said universities were moving away from targeted scholarships and towards discounts being offered to entire groups of students. 

He warned that this could create bigger financial problems for universities if student numbers continue to fall. Even highly ranked universities were increasingly competing on lower prices and easier entry requirements rather than reputation. 

International students have long been an important source of money for universities, helping them support research and make up for the lower fees paid by domestic students. But fewer international students now mean less money coming in.

UK sees fewer Indian students

The situation is particularly important for Indian students because India is one of the UK’s biggest sources of international students. Home Office figures show that the number of Indian students enrolling in master’s programmes fell to 11,453 in the first quarter of 2026. 

A year earlier, the figure was 15,149. That means enrolments fell by about 24%. The number of Indian undergraduate students also dropped, from 2,073 to 1,676 over the same period.

An Office for Students analysis found that the number of Indian students in UK higher education dropped by 20.4% between 2022-23 and 2023-24. Numbers fell from nearly 140,000 to around 111,000. 

Indian student groups in the UK have linked the decline to several factors, including weaker job opportunities after graduation, the high cost of living and safety concerns following anti-immigration unrest.

However, there is one area where demand from India is moving in the opposite direction. PhD applications have increased. The number rose from 633 in 2024 to 732 in 2025.

Why are fewer international students choosing the UK? 

One major reason is the UK’s tougher immigration rules.

The government introduced a ban in 2024 that stopped most international postgraduate students from bringing their dependants to the UK.

The country has also tightened rules around student visas and how universities are expected to check and monitor international students. The result has been a major fall in the number of new international postgraduate students. 

A British Universities International Liaison Association (BUILA) survey released in April 2026 found that seven out of 10 UK universities had seen international postgraduate starters fall in the January 2026 intake. 

On average, the number of students was down 31% from a year earlier. The fall has been particularly severe in countries that UK authorities consider higher-risk visa markets.

Universities also reported significant declines in students from India and Bangladesh.

Six out of 10 universities said they were seeing more visa refusals than they had a year earlier. Many universities blamed delays and refusals that they said did not always appear to match the quality of the applicants.

New visa rules are adding to the pressure 

Another major concern for universities is the government’s Basic Compliance Assessment, or BCA. The system, which began in June 2026, uses a traffic-light approach to assess universities based on their student visa records.

Universities can face penalties if their student visa refusal rate goes above 5%. As a result, some universities have started becoming more cautious about recruiting students from countries they consider higher-risk.

That is creating problems for genuine students too.

Monitoring group ICEF has warned that applicants from countries such as India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Nepal and Bangladesh could be affected even when they have nothing to do with fraudulent applications. Together, students from these countries account for about 39% of the UK’s international student population.

UK Home Office figures show that applications for sponsored study visas fell 33% year-on-year in the first four months of 2026.

Another financial hit is coming for universities 

The problems do not end with falling student numbers. Universities in England are also preparing for a new annual charge on international student fees.

The UK government has confirmed a £925 levy for every international student, based on international tuition fee income. It is due to start in the 2028-29 academic year.

The levy is a softer version of an earlier proposal that would have taken 6% of international tuition fee income. The Treasury expects the new levy to raise around £445 million in its first year.

But the higher education sector has warned that universities could lose much more money as a result. The changes could also lead to thousands fewer international enrolments.

Some of the UK’s research-heavy universities are particularly exposed because they depend heavily on international students for tuition income. Universities including UCL, Imperial College London and LSE get around 70% to 80% of their tuition income from students from outside the UK.

Financial crisis forces UK universities into price competition 

The financial pressure on UK universities is growing, with the Office for Students warning that 72% of English providers could run a deficit in 2025-26, leaving the sector facing a £1.6 billion shortfall. 

Postgraduate tuition income has already fallen from £5.5 billion in 2023-24 to around £5 billion in 2024-25. Universities had expected student numbers to recover, but the regulator has called forecasts of a 20% rise in domestic students and 22.5% rise in international students by 2028-29 “overly optimistic”. 

With fewer international students coming in, universities are now offering bigger discounts to attract them. Jamie Arrowsmith of Universities UK International said students are increasingly looking for “the best deal that they can get.”