2.7 - Differential Fees for Overseas Students with Jodi Burkett

History of Education Society UK Podcast

The half a million international students studying in the UK are heirs to a complex legacy of overseas students studying in Britain. From medieval scholars traveling between Oxford and Paris, medical students traveling to Edinburgh, Indian students coming over in the late 19th century, or Chinese students studying in London today – politics and education combine in these students studying away from home. One moment that is particularly important for international students occurred in 1966-67, when the British government began charging different fees for overseas students than for home students.

Today we discuss that change and the student protests that came with it. Our guide is Dr Jodi Burkett, social and cultural historian of late twentieth century Britain and a Senior Lecturer at the University of Portsmouth. Her research looks at the cultural and social impacts of the end of the British Empire, with a particular focus on national movements like the National Union of Students. Her recent chapter - Boundaries of Belonging: differential fees for overseas students, c. 1967 - touches on a number of important questions about race, national identity, and student politics and how these intersected with the overseas fee hike.
A transcript of the episode is available at the History of Education Society website, along with more information about our events, publications and conferences. You can follow the History of Education Society UK on Twitter and keep up-to-date with the latest research in The History of Education journal.

Sources

Boundaries of Belonging: differential fees for overseas students, c. 1967 in The break-up of Greater Britain by Jodi Burkett

Revolutionary vanguard or agent provocateur: students and the far left on English university campuses c.1970–90 by Jodi Burkett