Scottish universities have heavily relied on international postgraduate students for funding, but recent declines raise concerns about future sustainability.
London, United Kingdom Jul 12, 2026 ALN: Scottish universities have been betting big on international postgraduate students for the better part of a decade, but recent events prove that approach is no longer reliable.
The worst-kept secret in Scottish higher education is the reliance on international student tuition to prop up the sector financially.
The Scottish Government has remained committed for nearly two decades to paying tuition fees for Scottish-domiciled students receiving their first undergraduate degree. Universities receive a flat £1,820 per student annually, plus a subject-specific grant. On average, the total per student per year is roughly £7,500.
Although there is no official “cost of teaching” for any given subject, a 2024 analysis used a Department for Education model to estimate how much universities need to deliver different degrees and compare that cost to what they receive from the Scottish Government.
There were no instances in which government tuition covered the full estimated cost of delivery, and in some cases it was less than 50% of the estimates.
The government and sector stakeholders are currently conducting a comprehensive review of the funding model, which includes first calculating the exact extent of the funding gap. The hope is that this will inform important decisions about how the sector can be reformed to make it more financially sustainable.
A complicating factor in the sector's relationship with different types of tuition, however, is that individual institutions rely on international students to varying degrees.
In 2024/25, data show that the highest numbers of international students were at the Universities of Edinburgh (16,235) and Glasgow (13,880), with the University of the West of Scotland, Glasgow Caledonian University, and the University of St Andrews following, each with more than 5,000.
By contrast, Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), UHI, the Royal Conservatoire and Abertay University all reported fewer than 500 international students in the same year.
But it is important to note that the raw figures do not tell the whole story. Between them, Edinburgh and Glasgow were home to 43% of the sector’s total 69,935 international students in 2024/25, but individual institutions’ internal reliance on international students varies.
In 2024/25, international students made up 42% of Edinburgh’s total enrolment and 36% of Glasgow’s. At the University of St Andrews, 5,730 international students accounted for 46% of the 11,645 total, while Heriot-Watt University (31% of 9,845) and the Glasgow School of Art (36% of 2,845) reported high percentages within relatively low overall enrolments.
The proportion of each university’s international cohort relative to its overall enrolment, and the relative size of said enrolment, leaves them uniquely vulnerable to changes in recruitment trends.
Enter the postgraduate taught degree level that has historically contributed most to the rise and more recent decline in international recruitment. According to HESA data, when international entrants to Scottish universities peaked at 46,995 in 2022/2023, postgraduate taught students accounted for 80% of that total.
This represented a massive financial windfall of more than £750m in that year, out of the sector’s total £1.35 billion in income from international tuition fees. By comparison, in 2017/18, Scottish universities took in a total of £599m in international fees, with £259m of that coming from international postgraduate taught students.
Universities have scaled up their staffing, infrastructure, and global footprint over this period of growth, but the recent decline in international numbers has prompted many to rethink their approach.
Savings drives, job cuts and resulting strike actions are now the norm across most campuses in Scotland. As universities look to make savings to either close an existing budget gap or stave off a predicted one, the axe tends to hover over staff.
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Some universities have been more explicit than others about the relationship between declining international enrolment and savings decisions. In announcing its recent savings drive, Glasgow Caledonian University drew a distinction between the types of positions that either met demand or were funded by fees from now-absent international students, and those it was considering cutting.
Seeing as staff numbers have risen in line with years of international growth, many universities are making the case that the prudent approach is for those levels to contract during leaner times.
But this has led to a crisis of conscience in the sector as much as cost. Cutting too deeply into staff costs risks removing the heart of the sector, the teaching and research credentials that Scotland’s international academic reputation was initially built on, and what public tuition is promising home students.
At the same time, when the market dipped in 2023, universities did not retract or reshape to the same degree. This has led to potentially more painful decisions now, and to some universities looking ahead to aggressively stave off any possibility of a deficit.
By the end of the year, the Framework for the Sustainability and Success of Scotland’s Universities project promises to paint a clear picture of the sector’s needs and challenges, with recommendations for decision-makers on how to address them.
As has been said repeatedly, the review is considered a wide-open exercise, but the question of whether Scottish students should pay tuition is firmly off the table. That does not mean there can’t be significant change, however, and stakeholders on all sides have reached an agreement in recent months that the status quo is not a viable option.
The bet on international recruitment is no longer a safe one, and recent events across the sector suggest it never was in the first place. But the reality is that it was a bet that paid off for a long time.
If the sector is going to continue the trajectory that that income sustained for so long, then the choices are to downsize accordingly, or find a new cash cow.
One involves painful cuts to staff and individual institutions; the other likely means the government digging into its pockets.
Both are easier said than done.
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