Tuition fees force students to US in record numbers

Record numbers of British students have opted to study at leading universities in the United States since the coalition’s decision to triple tuition fees.

Figures published today show that 10,191 students from Britain were studying at American universities last year, a rise of 8 per cent on the previous year and the largest rise in a decade.

Half are undergraduates, whose numbers rose by 11 per cent. These candidates would have applied in the autumn of 2012, at the same time that fees of £9,000-a-year were introduced for British universities.

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Parents and schools have also found it harder to book places at testing centres in Britain where applicants can sit one of the entrance tests for American universities, usually tests called the SAT or ACT. Private schools, in particular, have reported heightened interest among highly able pupils in elite universities overseas and more active recruitment activity here by American and European institutions. Interest has also been heightened after the Sutton Trust, an educational charity, introduced a US summer school programme with the US-UK Fulbright Commission.

Among the teenagers who took part is Gemma Collins, 19, from Blackpool, who this summer began a four-year liberal arts degree at Harvard, where fees are about $65,000 (£41,450) per year.

Ms Collins took five A levels, achieving an A*, two As and two Bs. As her mother is a single parent she is receiving financial aid and will graduate debt-free.

“I would have been happy to study in the UK, but studying abroad has so much more to offer especially when it is so competitive getting jobs after graduation,” Ms Collins said.

“From the short time I have been here, I think it has changed me as a person with the diversity of the people here that I am surrounded by.”

Read the full Times report here (£).

See also Record number of British students opting to study in US (Richard Garner, The Independent).