Leading article: Cost of learning

The Home Office's decision to increase charges for overseas students who want to extend their visas to study in the United Kingdom has been greeted with outrage by everyone in higher education.

The Home Office's decision to increase charges for overseas students who want to extend their visas to study in the United Kingdom has been greeted with outrage by everyone in higher education. In future, international students will have to pay £250 for postal applications (up from £155) and £500 (up from £250) for "premium" in-person applications. The universities think that this could deter applicants. The fact is, however, that the increases are fairly modest compared with the cost of courses, which run into thousands of pounds, and the cost of board and lodging, which also reaches several thousand pounds. We doubt that the increases will put off many students.