The report ‘The costs and benefits of international students by parliamentary constituency’, produced by London Economics, provides a detailed analysis of the benefits to the UK of international students.

It shows that once all costs of hosting the students are taken out, including education, health and social security, the net economic impact for Luton and Bedfordshire is:

• Luton - £97.4m
• Bedfordshire - £93.6m

The study which provides a detailed analysis of the costs as well as the benefits to the UK of welcoming 231,000 international students each year found on average the net impact for each individual EU student is £68,000 and £95,000 for each non-EU student. In every single parliamentary constituency, it found the benefits exceeded the costs.

Bill Rammell, Vice Chancellor of the University of Bedfordshire said: “This is a hugely powerful report detailing the economic benefits international students bring to their local communities while they are studying in the UK.

“For Luton South alone, the parliamentary constituency where our main campus is located, international students contribute almost £67.6m to the economy. This is a huge contribution to the economic prosperity of the region which cannot be ignored. It absolutely reinforces the need for the Government to rethink its self-defeating policy towards international students, and take them out of the migration cap.”

Nick Hillman, Director, HEPI, said: “International students bring economic benefits to the UK that are worth ten times the costs of hosting them.  Trying to persuade the Home Office that international students nearly always benefit the UK can feel like banging one’s head against a brick wall.

“In the past, they have not accepted figures on the benefits on the grounds that they ignore the costs. Our work, in contrast, includes all the potential costs and conclusively proves these are small compared to the huge benefits.”

The analysis concentrates on the cohort of international – EU and non-EU – first year students attending UK universities in 2015/16.