International students are worth £651m to the city of Coventry

International students are worth £651 million to the city of Coventry, new figures show. 

The data is available for the first time for each parliamentary constituency and shows that the net totals for Coventry South, Coventry East and Coventry North West combine to reach £651 million. 

Coventry South saw the sixth largest gross benefit in the UK from international students at £480m. Once the cost to public services of £44 m illionis taken into account, that left a net impact of £436 million. 

In Coventry East the gross benefit of £129 million and public services cost of £12 million created a net impact of £117 million, while Coventry North West’s impact was calculated at £98 million from benefits of £108 million, minus costs of £10 million.

The figures were published by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) and Kaplan International Pathways and commissioned from London Economics.

Thousands of international students from 160 nations currently study at Coventry University’s city centre campus every year, while neighbouring the University of Warwick also welcomes learners from overseas. 

The benefits of international students for the top 20 constituencies combined – 17 from England, one from Scotland, one from Wales and one from Northern Ireland – totalled at £8.3 billion. 

Professor John Latham CBE, Vice-Chancellor of Coventry University, said: “We have always known and nurtured the incredibly positive impact that international students have on our city and these figures show that welcoming students from overseas has an invaluable impact on everyone who calls Coventry their home. 

“We want this to continue for years to come but recent government actions have had a dramatic effect on the number of overseas students coming to the UK as restrictions on some student visas and political rhetoric led to a 40 per cent year-on-year drop in international student recruitment at English universities in January’s intake. 

“Should numbers continue to drop then Coventry as a whole could lose out to the tune of millions of pounds and everything must be done to keep the city’s doors open to students who have so much to offer to our communities in so many ways.”