The best part about Brexit: Studying in UK is not that expensive anymore!

What will happen to the UK? Will the pound value drop? Will the investments rise? Will the loan repayments rise? ......

The entire world whispers many questions and prepares for the dire impacts to be caused by the Brexit. Finally, the people of United Kingdom had called it quits on June 23, 2016, and decided to leave the European Union. The latter is set to create an economic rattle for many countries around the world. However, it turns out to be a good news to foreign students who dream of studying in the UK. Experts predict a significant reduction of fee on educational courses offered by universities in the UK.

How UK studies would get cheaper?

For many years, the education in the UK remained pretty expensive when compared to many other countries. The higher quality of education and higher course fee remained as the core reasons for this existence. But, the currency devaluation in the UK which predicted as certain to happen and it directly impacts in the reduction overall course fee. Needless the mention how vulnerable the economy of the UK after the initial freefall of pound after the Brexit results.

Unfavorable Policies

In spite of many immigrant students wanting to pursue their higher education in the UK, there was a steady decline in the number of students who actually enrolled every year. The unfavorable policies of UK made it unattractive to many immigrant students. Especially the immigrant students from countries like India who are often value-seekers find those policies as obstructions while the try to recover the course fee with part-time earnings.

“The UK had been witnessing a decline in the number of Indian students due to policies that did not favor students in gaining work experience. Given that Indian students are value-seekers, they prefer to recover a part of the cost of education by gaining work experience. Post-recession, UK policies have been making it consistently more expensive and difficult for international students to study and stay in the UK. Decline in work opportunities along with the uncertain economy and stricter immigration policies will make the UK less attractive for many Indian students,” said Rahul Choudaha, CEO of DrEducation, a US-based global higher education research firm.

The desperation of Universities

However, the policies pose a hurdle, the universities in the United Kingdom are desperate to attract the immigrant students with special offers and scholarships. “UK universities have shown a lot of interest in India, which is a big market for them. Earlier, (a larger) number of students chose the UK for postgraduate studies but the trend is changing with undergraduate courses also being in demand. UK universities will now try to attract more Indian students and they cannot afford to ignore Indian students or their association with Indian institutions, particularly with the pending foreign education bill and the recent announcements by the ministry of human resource development regarding tie-ups with foreign institutions,” says Sanjeev Roy, higher education expert– EU.

“After Brexit, UK universities and other funding agencies such the British Council are likely to get aggressive in terms of offering scholarships, full or partial, to attract Indian students. The number of UK varsities coming to India to woo students has gone up. Their education policy will focus on welcoming students from all over and will have to think out-of-the-box to get in more Indian students. Scholarships under schemes such as Great Scholarships by the British Council, Dr. Manmohan Singh Scholarships, and Chevening Scholarships, besides scholarships by universities, will go up,” adds Roy.

Caution!

The announcement of Brexit does definitely have brighter chances of becoming favorable for students. However, the student should not rule out the worst case scenarios that could happen. The Brexit impact does not only makes course fees affordable but also does take a severe toll on the work opportunities for immigrant students. “Uncertain prospects for finding work opportunities will make it difficult for students to recover direct cost and hence overall cost of study in the UK will still increase.”

And also there are chances for universities to increase their course fee to equate the pound value remaining weak against the currency of the student’s country. As the universities could lose the huge funding from the EU as a direct consequence of Brexit, they might hike the course fee to equate the losses.