Foreign nationals received around £4 billion in UK student loans over the past year, accounting for roughly one-fifth of all lending under the system, according to figures compiled from parliamentary questions and freedom of information requests and published by the Times.
Conservative MP Neil O’Brien, who compiled the figures, said around 239,000 foreign citizens currently receive student loans, with approximately 195,000 holding settled status under the EU settlement scheme. The share of loans going to non-UK students has increased from 10.2 percent a decade ago to 19.3 percent today.
“In the past 12 months alone, around 66,000 completely new applicants gained residency via this scheme, five years after the deadline,” O’Brien said. O'Brein questioned why late applications were still being approved and warned that the growing number of people gaining settled status could be contributing to the rise in foreign nationals receiving student finance, stating “My worry is that too many of these people will leave and not repay, or are getting the loan to top up their income while mainly working and doing a bit of studying,” he said. “If we stop the flow of new EU settled status claims, the flow of EU student loans is likely to dry up too.”
Foreign students are reportedly less likely to repay their loans than British students. The figures show 51 percent of non-UK nationals made a repayment last year, compared with 68 percent of British students. Among Romanian borrowers, the repayment rate was 45 percent.
O’Brien said taxpayers could ultimately lose more than £2 billion annually on loans issued to non-UK nationals. Overseas borrowers already classified as “non-compliant” owe the British taxpayer around £1.5 billion.
“Foreign nationals received £4 billion in student loans in the last academic year. Yet the Department for Education has no idea how much of this we will get back or not — but we could easily be losing over £2 billion a year on loans we should not be making,” O’Brien said. “This is not right, not fair, and not sustainable.”
Conservative MP Neil O’Brien, who compiled the figures, said around 239,000 foreign citizens currently receive student loans, with approximately 195,000 holding settled status under the EU settlement scheme. The share of loans going to non-UK students has increased from 10.2 percent a decade ago to 19.3 percent today.
“In the past 12 months alone, around 66,000 completely new applicants gained residency via this scheme, five years after the deadline,” O’Brien said. O'Brein questioned why late applications were still being approved and warned that the growing number of people gaining settled status could be contributing to the rise in foreign nationals receiving student finance, stating “My worry is that too many of these people will leave and not repay, or are getting the loan to top up their income while mainly working and doing a bit of studying,” he said. “If we stop the flow of new EU settled status claims, the flow of EU student loans is likely to dry up too.”
Foreign students are reportedly less likely to repay their loans than British students. The figures show 51 percent of non-UK nationals made a repayment last year, compared with 68 percent of British students. Among Romanian borrowers, the repayment rate was 45 percent.
O’Brien said taxpayers could ultimately lose more than £2 billion annually on loans issued to non-UK nationals. Overseas borrowers already classified as “non-compliant” owe the British taxpayer around £1.5 billion.
“Foreign nationals received £4 billion in student loans in the last academic year. Yet the Department for Education has no idea how much of this we will get back or not — but we could easily be losing over £2 billion a year on loans we should not be making,” O’Brien said. “This is not right, not fair, and not sustainable.”
