The contribution international students make to the UK economy varies significantly depending on the parliamentary constituency, data suggests.
A new analysis estimates that in 10 constituencies, including the prime minister’s, overseas students bring in more than £400million in economic benefits.
But there are 29 constituencies – including Clacton, which Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is the MP for – where the benefits international students bring are worth just £5million or less, according to findings from the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) and Kaplan International Pathways.
The data, commissioned by London Economics, estimates the value of international students to the UK across 650 parliamentary constituencies.
Just one year’s cohort of international students is worth half a billion pounds in economic benefits in three constituencies – Leeds Central and Headingley, Sheffield Central, and Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West, it suggests.
For Carlisle, which incorporates two campuses of the University of Cumbria, the net benefit is £13million.
In Penrith and the Solway and Whitehaven and Workington, the net benefit figures are £5million and £4million respectively.
But Cumbria was among the lowest in terms of financial benefit and was outperformed by more prominent university areas like Dundee, Bangor, and York.
Below is a map showing the benefit foreign students have on the economy of the country's constituency areas.
With the new Citadel campus, Carlisle will welcome more students and may be financially better off thanks to the input of foreign students into our economy.
READ MORE: Cumberland Council and Uni of Cumbria remain committed to Citadels
It comes as Baroness Jacqui Smith, universities, skills and apprenticeship minister this week announced that the government will consider ‘all options to deliver a more robust higher education sector amid reports of the ‘financial peril’ facing universities, a minister has said.
In a question and answer session with the minister at an event addressing university leaders on Wednesday in Reading, professor David Maguire, vice-chancellor at the University of East Anglia, said: “There are people in this room whose initial business plan for this year has been hit by tens of millions of pounds reduction in income from student fees.
“Across the sector, we’re looking at about a 50 per cent reduction in the number of international postgraduate taught students.”
He added: “I just want to underscore the really significant importance and the clear and present danger which some universities face at the present time.”
During her speech, Baroness Smith said: “I’d like to state as plainly as I can that international students are, and will continue to be, welcome in the UK.”
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