A new Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA)-funded project is urging UK universities to move away from viewing international students through a “deficit” lens, arguing that institutions – rather than students – often bear responsibility for barriers to inclusion.
Findings from the QAA-backed Collaborative Enhancement Project (CEP) report – written by researchers from De Montford University – revealed that staff are uneasy as international students are being framed by institutions as financial assets.
“The term ‘cash cows’ was used directly and repeatedly by staff who found the framing both accurate and deeply uncomfortable,” the report said.
Carried out in partnership with the University of Wolverhampton, the University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University, the project involved workshops with academic and professional staff across all four institutions.
According to the researchers, universities have increasingly positioned international recruitment as a financial strategy while expecting individual academics to manage the resulting challenges in the classroom.
“An institution that recruits students as a financial strategy and then tasks individual educators with the consequences of that strategy is producing a structural injustice, not a pedagogic problem,” the report argues.
It’s only by valuing all of our students as unique individuals and unique learners, rather than as agglomerations of income-generating assets… that we can begin to build properly equitable and effective learning processes
Sumeya Loonat, De Montford University
The project also challenges long-standing assumptions about international students’ preparedness for study in the UK.
While international students are often portrayed as lacking English language proficiency, critical thinking skills or familiarity with UK academic conventions, the researchers argue the “most significant deficit” may instead lie elsewhere.
“It may lie with the staff member who lacks understanding of the student’s educational history. It may lie with the institution that provides no or minimal dedicated professional development. It may lie with a curriculum that treats Eurocentric academic conventions as universal,” the report suggested.
Rather than focusing on perceived student shortcomings, the report calls for institutions to examine the structural conditions that make inclusive teaching difficult, including heavy workloads, large class sizes, limited staff training, late student arrivals and the financial pressures associated with large-scale international recruitment.
To support institutions, the project has developed an audit toolkit for evaluating training, resources and practice, alongside a guide to small-scale inclusive teaching approaches.
The report also outlines six principles for educators, including recognising international students as individuals rather than visa holders or fee payers, questioning where the “deficit” truly lies when students struggle, involving international students in curriculum design, and ensuring the duty of care begins at recruitment rather than induction.
Sumeya Loonat, senior international student lecturer at Leicester Castle Business School, De Montfort University, said universities should recognise the value international students bring to universities rather than viewing them as problems to be managed.
“It’s only by valuing all of our students as unique individuals and unique learners, rather than as agglomerations of income-generating assets… that we can begin to build properly equitable and effective learning processes,” she said.
Loonat added that the findings also carry lessons beyond higher education, arguing that international students should be recognised as “a rich cultural and intellectual resource” rather than simply an economic necessity for UK universities.
The report comes as the UK higher education sector continues to grapple with growing financial pressures and increasing dependence on international tuition fee income, prompting renewed debate over the balance between recruitment targets and student support.
There are worries that an upcoming levy on international students’ tuition fees in England could have a huge knock-on effect on overseas enrolments, with official government modelling predicting a £330 million annual hit to university finances.
