Universities are enrolling overseas students who lack English language skills and other "basic requirements". Some of these students are unable to understand simple questions and need to use translation apps in lectures and seminars, said professors writing for the Higher Education Policy Institute think tank.
There is "widespread silence" about the problem, according to the anonymous professors. Tuition fees for English domestic students have not kept pace with inflation, representing "a real-terms cut in university funding", said the BBC. This makes foreign students an attractive financial prospect for universities.
Fees for domestic undergraduate students in England are capped at £9,250, but there is no upper limit on tuition fees for overseas students. "You can charge a foreign student as much as they're willing to pay," HEPI's Rose Stephenson told the broadcaster.
About seven out of 10 students studying master's courses in England are now from overseas. One postgraduate student from Iran told the broadcaster she was "shocked" to find many of her fellow students had limited English, and that most students paid other people to do their coursework, or even to attend lectures for them. Many students had also "bought assignments" from "essay mills" based overseas, she said, even though the practice is illegal in England.
The fundamental issue is that it is becoming "increasingly unprofitable" for British universities to teach British students, wrote Tom Jones for The Critic. "If we are to build a more successful and sustainable future for UK universities", this "cannot be based on recruiting ever more foreign students" to allow the government to avoid "politically difficult decisions" on higher education. | 
