Hugh Brady rules out increasing international student fees to cover possible government levy costs
Raising fees by similar amount "not an option" as it would damage student intake quality, Imperial President affirms
Imperial College President Hugh Brady ruled out any increase to international students’ tuition fees to cover a proposed 6% levy recently put forward by the Home Office.
During his monthly "In Conversation with the President" address on Wednesday 10th September, Brady dismissed a written question asking whether overseas tuitions fees could be increased “by an equivalent amount” to that of the levy, by repeating, “it’s just not an option”.
“The quality of our intake would drop,” Brady added, as he explained that high fees were already one of the main reasons brilliant overseas applicants turned their offers down.
In the immigration policy paper published in early May, the Home Office floated plans for “introducing a levy on higher education provider income from international students, to be reinvested into the higher education and skills system”.
Although the College President conceded there were “some challenges associated with immigration,” referring to illegal Channel crossings and cases overseas students who overstay their visa by claiming asylum, he was critical of the policy, considering it as one of the government’s “worst excesses”. He suggested it could cost Imperial as much as £23 million.
These concerns reflect worries in other universities. A report from the Higher Education Policy Institute found that the policy would come at a cost of £621 million across the higher education sector, with Imperial paying the fourth-highest levy cost, at £21 million. The Home Office itself estimated the policy would immediately result in a yearly reduction of around 14,000 overseas students nationwide.
Not all attendees of the webinar were convinced. A follow-up Q&A post, which received 47 upvotes but was not commented upon, defiantly read: “So to be clear, Imperial is not willing to increase fees for international students, as this risks lower-quality intake of students, but Imperial is willing to offer a below-inflation pay award, and is not concerned about the affect this may have on the quality of staff intake?”
