International students do not impact outcomes for domestic students in England

International students do not importantly affect education and labour market outcomes of domestic students in higher education in England, finds a new study involving UCL. The study, published in the European Economic Review by researchers at UCL and the Universities of Surrey and Essex, investigated whether international students in undergraduate programmes affect the educational performances and early labour market outcomes of their UK-domiciled peers. The research team reviewed data from undergraduate students enrolled at universities in England in the academic years 2007/8-2010/11, to exploit the variation in exposure to international students in university programmes across different cohorts. The researchers tested whether studying with international students (as measured by the share of international students in the first year of the undergraduate programme) impacts the probability of domestic (native) students successfully graduating, and of graduating with good grades. They found there is no evidence of international students affecting these outcomes, nor is there any evidence of international students affecting the type of job that native graduates have at six months after graduation. The study shows that international students (and more specifically, EU-domiciled students) have some effects on the retention of native students in non-STEM programmes, instead of moving to a STEM degree, and in increasing the probability of domestic students to move from a degree in a university belonging to the Russell Group to a university not belonging to a Russell Group.