Students owe millions in fees to Midlands universities
Universities across the West Midlands and Staffordshire are owed millions of pounds in fees from students from as many as 67 different countries, it can be revealed today.
The outstanding fees come to a combined total of £6.46m across five universities in the region.
Debt collectors are being used by the institutions to try and chase former students abroad, it has emerged. Some of the debts date back more than 10 years, according to the figures revealed under Freedom of Information.
This year the issue of student tourism came into the spotlight, when it emerged that the Student Loans Company was chasing up £50m from people who returned overseas after their studies in the UK.
The bulk of student fees owed in the region is at the University of Wolverhampton, which is owed £3,778,672 from 1,885 students. The bill spans students from 67 countries and debts date back 10 years.
Finance chiefs at the university say the figure is so high because they only write-off bad debt when they are certain it cannot be recovered.
Andy Holding, finance director at Wolverhampton, stressed it collected 99.5 per cent of all tuition fees.
He added: "As far as non-EU students are concerned, we charge a £5,000 up-front deposit for these students before they are able to study with us.
We continue to pursue debts overseas if it is economic to do so."
Staffordshire University is out of pocket to the tune of £391,472 from students from 19 different countries.
Maria Scrivens, spokeswoman at Staffordshire, said if students did not pay fees they could be excluded and referred to a debt recovery agency.
The University of Birmingham is owed £1,054,586 from 420 students, with debts dating back to 2006/07.
Around two thirds of the students in debt are from the UK or EU, while the others are international students.
Catherine Byerley, spokeswoman for the University of Birmingham, said: "The percentage of students who fail to meet their fee obligations remains very small."
Birmingham City University is chasing up £775,464 of debts from a total of 332 people from 18 different countries, some of which date back to 2003/04.
Aston University is owed £461,000 in fees from students from 44 different counties.
