One, a PhD researcher in politics, 26, told me: “Occasionally, I like to see if I can apply for an academic grant to ease some financial burden, but the ‘cash-strapped’ university seems to have multiple pots of money available to attract international students.
“You have to question, what good is it for Britain that a large proportion of grants and scholarships available are for international students?”
Another, aged 30 and doing a PhD at a London University, said: “I am deeply unhappy that international students can even claim these research grants. They are intended to train British researchers and international students often leave soon after graduation anyway.
“For PhD level, there is a widely-held belief that to attract the best applicants, schemes need to ensure that candidates can bring dependents. This isn’t really true because at the highest levels, academia is not conducive to a social or family life. I know zero PhD students who are married with kids, except for mature students.”
The student added of UKRI-funded PhDs: “Collectively, the full stipend, including course costs and maintenance, comes to just short of £70,000 over the course of three years and they are immensely competitive.
“The current research agenda, however, is of course to ‘diversify’ no matter the cost. In my opinion, this ultimately means that the projects and researchers selected are those which match ‘the agenda’ rather than those who are chosen for their quality.”
“In other words, international students may be part of helping universities to reach diversity targets. Listening to these students, and combing through the data, I wonder when Brits will get some “positive action?”