US universities make degrees from their British counterparts look like a steal but that does not necessarily stop more and more UK students heading across the Atlantic, it seems.
The National Union of Students (NUS) will gasp in horror, but forking out £3000 for top-up tuition fees in England really is miniscule compared to the huge fees US universities charge.
Yet, as the NUS continues to protest against the new fee regime- the reason behind a national demonstration in London on the weekend- it appears that UK students are becoming increasingly attracted to US universities, regardless of the cost.
Harvard has revealed that it was going to send student recruiters into UK state schools in a bid to break the grip the private school sector has on their intake. But Harvard is not the first.
Anthony Nemecek, director of the London-based US Educational Advisory Service of the US-UK Fulbright Commission, says in the past four years there has been a huge increase in English students scoping out degree opportunities in the US.
His office takes literally thousands of inquiries a year from English students and its annual college day in London this year attracted 4700 students. The lure of hefty scholarships is part of the reason behind the increase (for the lucky ones, US study is achievable), but Nemecek doesn't doubt that the new top-up fees in England are also to blame.
When a student is going to make a sizeable investment in their education, they want it to be at the best possible university, he says. Admittedly most students have their hearts set on the Ivy League, but that is slowly changing, Nemecek says. Students want an enriching overall experience, which many feel they would not get from UK institutions.
While, the US admissions system is vastly different to the more the more simplistic UK model- students have to sell themselves to their desired college and talk-up their impressive extracurricular activities- students are becoming more and more prepared to devote hours to applications.
Cast your mind back to Laura Spence, a pupil at an English comprehensive school in 2000 who was turned down by Oxford only to land a £65,000 scholarship to Harvard. Her case raised the issue of how accessible the UK's top universities are to state school pupils.
Is it top-up fees that will really deter the brightest but poorest students from university in the UK, or the perception that fees may not be money well spent?
