The article seeks to investigate the reasons why international university students tend to exhibit lower achievement in language and literacy skills with respect to home students. The experiment involved 63 Chinese (i.e., coming from China, and not UK-residents) and 64 British students at a UK university on non-verbal cognition. International students – who had met the English language entry requirements – were assessed immediately and after eight months on academic attainment. Results showed marked differences between international and home students in the two time periods. Language and literacy indicators varied significantly only in the Chinese group’s grades, while the home students’ achievement was not predictable. This suggests that language proficiency predicts academic outcomes before reaching a certain threshold, which does not correspond to the minimum language entry requirements. This causes a systematic disadvantage of many international students in their academic experience abroad.