More than half of undergraduates believe international students work harder than British students, a new study suggests. About 54 percent of just over 1,000 students polled on behalf of the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) and the Higher Education Academy (HEA) believe that overseas students put more effort into their studies than those from the UK. Only 4 percent said international students worked less hard, while one-third (33 percent) said they were just as diligent as native students, according to the results published on June 25.

Students at Russell Group universities were even more generous, with almost two-thirds (63 percent) rating overseas students as harder workers. Only 2 percent thought they were lazier than UK students, says the poll, which was undertaken by YouthSight in May. The surveyed undergraduates — 137 of whom were international students themselves — are also generally positive about the contribution of overseas students to the learning environment, the report says.

“Those who fear international scholars harm the student experience of home students are wrong. In fact, they enhance it,” says Nick Hillman, director of HEPI. “Without a healthy number of international students, it is likely that some courses would be uneconomic to run, classroom discussions would be excessively mono-cultural and graduates would have a more limited outlook.”

Hillman believes that highlighting the educational and financial benefits of international students to UK universities will help to soften government policy over student visas. It follows the Conservative Party’s commitment in its 2015 manifesto to crack down on student visas and the Tories’ aim to cut net migration to below 100,000 people a year, despite also setting ambitious revenue targets for international student number growth.

“The Home Office is in one corner trying to reduce the number of international students, and pretty much everyone else is in the other corner trying to increase them. We want to break that stalemate by highlighting the educational benefits of having diverse student bodies,” says Hillman.

The study also indicates that the majority of students (75 percent) are indifferent about whether their lecturers come from other countries. “The rich mix of cultures, tolerance and understanding that an international experience fosters helps prepare students to contribute as global citizens,” says Stephanie Marshall, chief executive of HEA.

(Excerpted and adapted from )