As part of the Autumn budget today, government announced it will charge universities £925 per international student for each year of study from August 2028. There will be no charge for the first 220 international students per year. In response, GuildHE CEO Dr Brooke Storer-Church said:
We welcome today's announcement of an exemption for institutions with lower numbers of international students from the international student levy. This is a helpful start to introducing policies that actively sustain a diverse higher education sector.
The arbitrary figure of 220 international students, however, leaves too many of our specialist, innovative and world-leading institutions exposed to payments which function as taxes on their attractiveness and high-quality offers. This is especially true for our arts and creative education specialist institutions.
We ask that the government urgently introduce an incremental system that will avoid crippling our smaller-scale, specialist and vocational institutions at a time government has underlined the need to protect and preserve them.
Dr Brooke Storer-Church, Chief Executive Officer