As UK universities come under increasing financial pressure, more and more are looking to overseas as a lucrative source of revenue.

The University of Oxford has recently come under fire in relation to its "associate students", who generally have inferior qualifications to the typical Oxford undergraduate, and pay as much as £13,000 per term.

Although these students are not officially part of the University, senior Oxford academics have asserted that they "pose severe reputational risk" as a result of their "often low" academic ability.

The internal report added: "Although there is some assessment of their GPA [Grade Point Average] scores before they are admitted by each college, the transaction seems to be one of a purely commercial kind."

At the University of Cambridge, the number of foreign students has also increased: in 2004 overseas students accounted for 13.4 per cent of the new intake, while in 2012 this figure was 22 per cent. The University also accepts "visitng students".

Government subsidies to universities have been cut back radically over the past decade. With UK student fees capped at £9,000 per annum, overseas students are proving to be a lucrative alternative. Tuition fees for overseas students at the UK’s top universities are up to four times more expensive than those of domestic students. Cambridge charges international students a premium of £4,500 per annum for studying most humanities subjects and for Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, this rises to four times the standard domestic rate of £9,000.

Russell Group Director General Dr Wendy Piatt said in 2011: “The UK must continue to attract the very best students from around the world”, pointing out that there is a fierce global market for the best academic talent. For the University of Cambridge, only 12.7 per cent of overseas applicants are offered places, less than half the success rate for applicants from the UK.

However, Daniel Stevens, the NUS international students’ officer, chastised British universities for treating overseas students as “cash cows”, while a report published ahead of the new academic year by the House of Commons Education and Skills Committee accused universities of being “driven by short-term gains in fee income”.

A spokesman from the University of Oxford said: "Associate members...pay a fee to use college facilities for a term. This is a way for colleges to make their facilities more widely available while earning income. Associate members are not Oxford University students and do not take up student places. They do not receive teaching and do not gain an Oxford qualification. All this is made clear upfront.

"This is one of many ways in which a wide range of people can participate in Oxford University life...Colleges make very clear both to associate members and to the outside world what associate membership does and does not involve, and have recently adopted a new code of practice to ensure that these differences are clearly and fully understood."