HEPI / Kaplan / London Economics webinar: The economic costs and benefits of international students
Overview
**A recording of the webinar can be viewed below**
On Thursday, 9 July 2026 between 12pm and 1pm, HEPI is hosting a webinar with Kaplan and London Economics to launch a new report on the economic costs and benefits of international students broken down by parliamentary constituency.
HEPI and Kaplan International Pathways have commissioned London Economics to calculate the economic consequences for the UK economy of hosting so many international students. Unlike other work in this area, the results cover the economic benefits and the public costs, enabling the publication of figures showing both the gross and net benefits of attracting so many learners from other countries. In addition, the new research includes the figures calculated down to the level of parliamentary constituencies.
The 2026 publication will be the fourth iteration of this work, but the new version will be based on the latest data (2024/25) on international students and will also, for the first time, use international students’ actual addresses rather than using proxies for where in the country they live.
Speakers
Professor Sir Steve Smith
UK Government International Education Champion
Professor Karen O’Brien
Vice-Chancellor and Warden, Durham University
Linda Cowan
Managing Director, Kaplan International Pathways
Maike Halterbeck
Partner, London Economics
James Cannings
Principal Consultant, London Economics
Rose Stephenson (Chair)
Director of Policy and Strategy, HEPI
Partners
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To register your place and for further details please click here.
Comments
Jonathan Alltimes says:
What are the alternative options to recruiting international students at scale?
In 1989, an economist working for the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food divulged to me that he had been asked to provide comments for an internal government consultion on the use of cost-benefit analysis for appraising government capital expenditure projects funded by government departments. He was bemused by the comparison the government had put forward as an example for transport investment, it was either roads or walking, public transport had been excluded. The comparison was a political choice and so the comparison being made about the costs and benefits of international students is not simply an accounting balance, it is the external standards of comparison, which is a political choice and not to posit alternative options is also a political choice. What the evolutionary economists argue is the possibility of economic choice is political, determined, and limited by path dependency. Has has higher education come to the end of the road? For many providers, perhaps most, the answer appears to be yes.
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