Gawdham Melath, an Indian undergraduate at Anglia Ruskin University, came to the UK full of optimism about a British education. But he quickly became disillusioned by the steep fees and cost of living.
For Melath, who now campaigns against the exploitation of international students, the problem is some unregulated agencies that sell foreign students a rose-tinted version of life in the UK. Agents say, “You will easily find a job. When you work 20 hours you will get this much money. This much you can save. This much you can pay for rent,” he adds. “But when they arrive here, everything is entirely different.”
Universities in the UK and elsewhere have come to rely on international students like Melath, who pay around three times as much as their domestic counterparts to study the same courses.