British tuition hike may draw U.K. students to the U.S.

With a bill set to triple the tuition cap for universities across England, British students may have more of a reason to consider studying abroad.

The legislation passed through Parliament Dec. 9 and will go into effect beginning in the 2012 academic year.

It will increase the average university tuition in the United Kingdom to £9,000 per year, which is approximately $14,000.

The new law is likely to increase the number of British students looking to study in the United States, according to Vince Pizzoni, head of professional guidance at The Cheltenham Ladies’ College, a high school in the UK.

However, he added that this has yet to be proven. “We’re unsure of what will happen,” Pizzoni said.

Despite this uncertainty, Pizzoni has witnessed an increasing number of British students considering the United States for college.

“Interest in the US is going up anyway. Whether it will go up more because of increase in tuition fees in the UK is [possible], but hard to say,” he said.

“The reason why most people, I think, come to the US is for a broader education,” College sophomore and London-native Naomi Kroloff said. Kroloff chose to come to Penn because in England, “you have to choose your subject and then study that for three years” rather than take time to decide your career path.”

More students in the UK are starting to see the appeal of a liberal arts education which can be ideal for “students who don’t want to specialize too early,” according to Pizzoni.

“For people who want breadth, the US is definitely something to look into,” he said.

Nevertheless, the legislation may affect the rate of international students applying to study at Penn as full-time students.

According to the BBC News, 8,861 British students studied at American universities in the 2009-2010 academic year — 47.6 percent of which were undergraduates.

However, U.K. citizens also have the opportunity to study in the US as exchange students.

“I came here because I wanted to see what it was like,” said College junior Tommy Dorrington-Ward, an exchange student from the UK. “I wanted to see what the system is like, what the country is like.”

Dorrington-Ward believes the new changes in tuition are not significant enough to encourage U.K. students to consider studying in the US because “it’s still vastly more expensive,” he said.

Protests across England proved widespread student disapproval of the recently passed tuition law, both at the university level, and at the national level.

Wharton junior Jen Kwok, who is currently studying abroad at Kings College in London recalled witnessing “walk outs” during class at a specified time and petition signing and small scale rallies.” Kwok said that there is “usually someone with a megaphone […] shouting things about how the government is destroying education.”

However, Kwok added, “frankly I think 9,000 pounds isn’t that much to pay for [university] if you’re comparing tuition prices to the US.”

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