UK and Australian universities potentially worse hit financially by COVID-19 than EU and US universities

The latest data from universities league table U-Multirank shows Australian and UK universities are potentially more financially hit by the pandemic than EU and US universities.

In particular, UK and Australian institutions face a loss of revenues from international fee-paying students. 

Frans van Vught, co-project leader of U-Multirank, says “[International students] now hesitate to apply for enrollment in universities in other countries, postpone their decisions to do so, or chose an institution 'closer to home'.”

EU and US universities seem to be in safer waters for now, as they rely more heavily on money from the public purse. But this could be threatened by budget cuts in higher education, If governments rein back because of the pandemic.

The European University Association (EUA) has previously warned that public funding in European higher education may decrease, because of a decrease of income from national and international student fees. The EUA is expecting that UK and Irish universities may encounter financial trouble for that reason, as UK universities depend on fee income for 54 per cent of their funding and Ireland 35 per cent.