Student review [#11108] for English Literature
at University College London - UCL

Now that I’ve finished a year at UCL, it’s suddenly dawned on me how unsurprising it is that the majority of UCL students are actually international students. It’s unsurprising because of how obvious it is that nearly everyone is from a different country. This is arguably one of the best things about UCL: the opportunity to acquaint oneself with a heterogenous population in a multicultural nexus that is meant to celebrate the intrinsic diversity of London. Before I came, I knew that that statistic was one of UCL’s finest achievements and highlighted its supreme position as a pioneer and champion of diversity. It’s one of the most appealing parts of the university. The problem is that UCL knows this- and manipulates it to further their economic imperative. The reason I say this is because international students are expected to pay ten thousand pounds more than the average British national, a whopping amount of 19,300 pounds (approximately). It is no wonder that UCL is one of the richest universities with its budget being 1.43 billion. Of course, it is London, a metropolitan country, so how could one not expect that there would be a huge influx of international students? Why shouldn’t we pay that amount of money, in addition to extra money for accommodation and bills and groceries? I’ll tell you why: UCL and London itself operate as a business. It neglects to take into account the exchange rates of different countries that make it even more difficult for international students to pay. But we pay, because it’s meant to offer us the best education and means of socio-economic improvement in the long run. Obviously this would mean that international students such as myself are especially privileged to afford to come to schools like UCL, but this does not erode the fact that so many of us would love to have the same opportunity, but are denied due to financial hinderances. UCL thus seeks the wealthiest investors, just as a business would. I do not contest that UCL should decrease the amount of tuition for the sake of international students, but I must point out their true reason for diversity- a rather troubling underbelly of greed.