The Department for Education has revised its proposals for an international student levy. The levy – first floated in the May 2025 Immigration White Paper as a 6% levy on the fees paid by overseas students to UK universities – will require providers to pay a flat fee of £925 per international student per year. It will fund the reintroduction of targeted maintenance grants for disadvantaged students, helping to break down barriers to opportunity as part of the government’s Plan for Change.
The EPC wrote to Jacqui Smith, Minister of State for Skills, last year on the risks of taxing HE engineering; the supply chain of the Industrial Strategy itself. Although this is a technical consultation, an EPC executive response is being explored. We want to highlight that:
- Engineering courses are vital to deliver the skills pipeline for the IS8 sectors and associated regional development. Four of the eight IS8 sectors are explicitly engineering sectors and the others will all draw heavily on those same skills.
- Real terms falling tuition fee investment for the past 13 years has led the sector to a position where high-quality provision for home engineering students is loss-making at most providers.
- Engineering departments are among those most dependent on international student fee income; one in four engineering first degree students are from overseas (compared with c,15% across all subjects). International PGT students, in particular, currently provide a crucial cross-subsidy that helps sustain Engineering provision at scale, offsetting losses incurred on UK undergraduate courses.
The deadline for submission is 18th February. If you have any comments you would like us to make, please contact us by 12th February 2026.
