London, United Kingdom, 17 December 2025

• CONNECTS-UK responds to the 2025 Autumn Budget, which introduces a new £925 levy on international student fees in England from the 2028–29 academic year.
• We are deeply concerned about the implications of this levy in the higher education sector and the impact it may have on international students, particularly those coming from EU countries.
• The implementation of the levy could potentially introduce an additional obstacle for EU students wanting to study in the UK, creating a fast-trickling accumulation of fi nancial burdens that may accelerate the decline in EU student participation in the UK, whose new enrolments had already fallen by 53% just after Brexit took eff ect. Thus, these shifts may reduce mobility and knowledge exchange, and weaken the UK’s ability to attract, retain, and benefi t from European talent.

At CONNECTS-UK, we have reviewed the 2025 Autumn Budget, including the areas that aff ect higher education funding, tuition fees, and international student policy.

The Autumn Budget aims to introduce a new levy on international student fees in England, set at £925 per year from the 2028-29 academic year¹. This measure was fi rst proposed in the Immigration White Paper published in May 2025² as part of a broader shift in the Government’s approach to immigration. We acknowledge that, through these changes, the Government aims to reinvest in the UK’s higher education and skills sector. However, we are deeply concerned about the potential fi nancial implications of these shifts on international students within UK higher education – particularly those coming from EU countries. While this levy will be charged to institutions, not to students directly, many universities will potentially increase their international student fees to ultimately account for the cost³. This would apply to international enrolments at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, including postgraduate research degrees.

When Brexit took effect, EU students coming to study in the UK were no longer eligible for home student fees and therefore started being charged for international student fees, which have always been substantially higher than the former. After this change, new enrolments of EU students in the UK fell 53%, a sharp decline that has resulted in EU students making up 7% of the new international students in UK higher education providers in the 2023/2024 academic year, compared to the 27% share they represented back in the 2016/2017 academic year⁴.

In addition to the shift to international fee status, the considerable visa costs and the challenge of navigating a more complex immigration system have created signifi cant barriers for students coming from the EU to access UK higher education. As CONNECTS-UK, we are worried about how these obstacles aff ect our community of EU researchers and academics in the UK, since an important section of this community consists of early career researchers that are students of doctoral or postgraduate research degrees. Furthermore, our community is in many cases formed of EU academics whose entry point into UK academia was via being a student, either at postgraduate or undergraduate level. Many decided to stay, becoming an essential part of the UK’s academic and research landscape and contributing to the country’s scientifi c and economic capacity⁵.

The implementation of the levy introduces an additional obstacle to the ones cited earlier, potentially posing a fast-trickling accumulation of financial burdens for EU students over a short period of time, should universities choose to increase their fees as a result of the levy. This would possibly cause a further decrease of EU students’ participation in UK higher education, which ultimately hinders the UK’s continued and historical ability to attract, retain, and benefit from European talent. In this sense, the UK’s position as a global research hub could be threatened and the long-standing EU-UK academic ties that support innovation and collaboration may be weakened.

As a response to these concerns, CONNECTS-UK calls on the Government to conduct a general review of this measure taking into account the issues we have raised: the potential consequences for EU student participation, research mobility, and the long-term health of EU-UK academic and scientific cooperation. CONNECTS-UK remains committed to fostering strong, inclusive links between the UK and EU higher education and research communities. We will continue to advocate for policies that enable meaningful student and researcher mobility, support equitable access to UK higher education, and strengthen the UK’s role as a welcoming and competitive destination for global talent.

Authors:
The CONNECTS-UK Team

1. HM Treasury. Budget 2025 – GOV.UK. (2025). Www.gov.uk.
   https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/budget-2025-document/budget-2025-html ↩︎
2. Home Office. Restoring control over the immigration system. GOV.UK.
   https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/restoring-control-over-the-immigration-system-white-paper/restoring-control-over-th
   e-immigration-system-accessible ↩︎
3. Universities UK. Understanding the UK’s new levy on universities. (2025).
   https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/topics/international/understanding-uks-new-levy-universities ↩︎
4. Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). Where do HE students come from? | HESA. Hesa.ac.uk.
   https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/where-from ↩︎
5. Universities UK. International student recruitment from Europe: the road to recovery. (2022).
   https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/universities-uk-international/insights-and-publications/uuki-publications/international-student-re
   cruitment-europe ↩︎