The UK authorities’s proposed worldwide scholar levy is meant to be a easy mechanism: a flat £925 cost per worldwide scholar per yr, paid by English greater schooling suppliers and reinvested into the upper schooling and abilities system. In precept, the coverage goal is obvious and defensible.
Nevertheless, because the technical session at the moment stands, there’s a vital unintended consequence that dangers undermining worldwide scholar change, outward mobility for UK college students, and already fragile topics similar to fashionable languages. Except that is addressed now, the levy may inadvertently make reciprocal change financially unsustainable for a lot of universities.
Why change college students matter and why they’re completely different
Incoming change and study-abroad college students usually are not the identical as full-degree worldwide college students:
- they’re sometimes fee-neutral, with tuition waived below reciprocal agreements
- they’re credit-bearing however not registered for a UK award
- they’re important to sustaining balanced two-way mobility, which in flip permits UK college students to review overseas
- they underpin disciplines similar to languages and space research, the place a yr or semester overseas is integral to the curriculum
In lots of instances, internet hosting an incoming change scholar already represents a web value to the establishment, absorbed in recognition of the broader educational and strategic advantages.
The place the levy design creates an issue
The technical session defines worldwide college students broadly and excludes solely these on a short-term examine visa, a route that’s used virtually solely for non-credit English language programs, whereas change and study-abroad college students enter the UK on both a scholar visa (for full-year change), or a normal customer visa or ETA (for one-semester examine that’s nonetheless credit-bearing).
The result’s stark: a college might be required to pay £925 to host an incoming change scholar who pays no tuition charges
As drafted, which means most incoming change college students are prone to be counted for levy functions, regardless of producing no extra tuition charge earnings. The result’s stark: a college might be required to pay £925 to host an incoming change scholar who pays no tuition charges.
The knock-on impact on outward mobility and languages
Change is a two-way system. If internet hosting incoming college students turns into a money value, universities will face troublesome selections:
- capping or decreasing inbound change numbers
- rebalancing or withdrawing from reciprocal partnerships
- limiting outward mobility alternatives for their very own college students
These pressures will probably be felt first, and hardest, in languages, the place outward mobility is central to educational integrity and already below pressure throughout the UK.
The danger is {that a} levy designed to help alternative and entry finally ends up shrinking entry to review overseas, notably for college kids in much less well-resourced disciplines or from much less advantaged backgrounds, which might run counter to wider authorities ambitions round world engagement, abilities, and social mobility.
Nearly definitely unintended and eminently fixable
There is no such thing as a indication within the session paperwork or impression evaluation that these penalties have been explicitly thought of. The levy has been modelled as a headcount-based cost, optimised for fee-paying diploma mobility, not for fee-neutral credit score mobility.
The excellent news is that that is eminently fixable with out undermining the core coverage goal. Choices may embrace:
- excluding college students registered for credit score solely and never a UK award
- excluding reciprocal change college students the place no extra UK tuition charge is charged
- excluding college students learning lower than a full educational yr, until enrolled on a full diploma
Any of those would shield change and outward mobility whereas preserving the integrity of the levy.
A name to motion for universities
The session on the worldwide scholar levy is open till February 18 2026. That is the second for universities to reply.
Establishments with: language provision, exchange-reliant programmes, and or sturdy commitments to outward mobility, ought to make their voices heard, clearly and constructively, highlighting this threat as an unintended consequence, not an argument in opposition to the levy itself.
If the sector doesn’t increase this now, the hazard is {that a} technically easy coverage quietly erodes one of the vital invaluable, and weak, elements of the UK’s worldwide schooling ecosystem.
Reply to the UK authorities’s proposed worldwide scholar levy right here.
Vincenzo Raimo will probably be talking in regards to the potential impression of the worldwide scholar levy at The PIE Dwell Europe in London on March 25. Guide your ticket right here.
