My partner teaches in the US and this has been standard fare there for decades; colleges underfunded or misallocating assets toward sports/new fancy dorms/etc. meaning there is an even greater need to allocate admissions to high-tuition international students. At her school it's been the Saudi, UAE students making Americans feel like the Scots portrayed in this article are: guests in their own country's institution. Every school/region has its own cohort of overrepresented wealthy students; school admins work tirelessly to market to these students to ensure their current business model can be sustained despite it working against their own country's students' interests. It's sad.

I have to agree with the St. Andrews rep that it's a societal issue(economic distribution) and not one caused by the school--however--if society hasn't fixed what it has known to be such a major problem in decades/centuries/millenia, how can 19-year-olds turn it around to a point of learning, fixing and absorbing the lesson in a few transient years at a university? It's quite a convenient concession for administration.