The spiralling cost of subsidising thousands of foreign students coming to the UK has been slammed by East Midlands MEP Derek Clark.
UKIP’s education spokesman said he felt it was extraordinary the Government was tripling fees for British students to attend our own universities, while more than 22,000 students were receiving hundreds of pounds a month to study here.
That is more than double the number of British students going into Europe to study.
A recent EU document showed the average amount given to each student is 254 Euros a month and with an average stay of six months, that amounts to 1,524 Euros per student.
With the number of students coming to Britain now hitting 22,650, the figures equate to an astonishing £30,788,730 of taxpayers’ money.
Mr Clark said: "It seems irresponsible that while we are tripling the fees for British students studying at British universities we are subidising foreign students to the tune of £1,500 a pop through the EU.
"Yet again our own people are discriminated against at home".
