I have noticed that there is a great difference between the tution fees of an UK/EU students and overseas student. what is the logic behind it? can anyone explain?

UK universities are funded by The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), The Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW), The Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC) and The Department of Education for Northern Ireland. They receive funding from these institutions based on a number of factors, the biggest of which is the number of home and EU students which they teach. In other words the universities are subsidised for each UK/EU student they have. They receive no such subsidy for students from other areas and therefore need to charge the full cost of the course.

The logic behind this system is firstly that the UK government is prepared to subsidise the education of its own citizens (and future tax payers). Reciprocal agreements with other EU countries mean that this subsidised rate is also available to all other EU citizens.

We are not condoning or condemning this system, but the logic behind it is pretty straight forward.

I was wondering whether UK universities profit more from admitting non-EU students. Reason is that I've heard that non-EU students sometimes recieve more favourable treatment (e.g. the relaxing of thesis assessment criteria) than EU ones. Or maybe that's the difference between self-funded and funded students(?).

There is no doubt that universities in the UK actively seek out fee paying international students and that these fees often generate a surplus which is ploughed back into the university for the benefit of all its students. A university with a strong international reputation and high numbers of international students is less susceptible to changes in government funding policy. UK universities are increasingly expected to teach more students for the same money and need to find other sources of income.

Rumours of preferential treatment always exist and universities will often appear to give better treatment to fee paying students. However any university who drops their academic standards will soon find its degrees devalued and its student numbers dropping.

Hmm, I found that non EU foreign students are sometimes rather dodgy in their English, while us EU foreigners are kinda not allowed to be as bumby as that. Since American and British people are rather uninterested in foreign languages, it might be a good idea to get the strategy clear on this one. Either you say (which is understandable) that your English has to be to a standard that enables you to write a thesis, or you say we make consetions for the fact that EU students are foreigners too.

We can't comment directly on your personal experiences. Any leniency regarding language skills is likely to be given to students because they are paying full international fees rather than their nationality itself. It may be that the prejudice you are talking about exists because UK universities can't make a surplus from EU students and so demand higher standards before they are prepared to take them on. Any discrimination is fiscal not racial.

Having said this all UK universities publish their English Language requirements for entry and these are the same for all applicants - even UK applicants must have an English Language qualification.