How do tuition fee increases affect international mobility? The case of European Union students in England

Alice Dias Lopes*, Jose Luis Mateos González, Paul Wakeling

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This paper presents a descriptive analysis of the impact of tuition fee increases in England on the full-degree mobility of undergraduate students from the European Union. First, we investigated whether the increase in tuition fees reduced the number of EU students in English higher education institutions. Our analysis shows that, on average, English universities suffered a sudden drop in EU enrolments in 2012/13 but recovered and then expanded their pre-2012 enrolment levels in subsequent academic years. We observe that those English universities regarded as less prestigious experienced the sharpest decline and took longer to recover their pre-2012 numbers. Second, we examined how changes in enrolment are associated with EU countries' macro-level characteristics, using the push-pull model framework. While there was a significant decrease in the number of students from Northern and Western European countries attending English universities after 2012, the tuition fee increase did not impact the number of students coming from Southern Europe. We found an association between EU countries' youth employment rates and higher education system characteristics with changes in enrolment in English universities. By examining the effect of changes in the tuition fee policy on international student mobility, our research provides new evidence on how tuition fee policies might change the behaviour of students.
Original languageEnglish
JournalEuropean Journal of Education
Early online date20 Oct 2023
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 20 Oct 2023

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • England
  • European Union
  • higher education
  • student mobility
  • tuition fees

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