Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will exclude incoming exchange students whose tuition is fully funded via (a) scholarships and (b) fee waivers from the International Student Levy.

The International Student Levy will require higher education providers to pay a flat fee of £925 per international student per year. Further details of the levy, including students in scope, will be published in due course. The income raised by the levy will be reinvested into skills and maintenance grants.

Providers will be given an allowance for the first 220 international students per year. This is to mitigate the levy having a disproportionate impact on smaller providers, particularly those operating specialist and resource intensive models with limited other means of cross-subsidisation. The levy will not be introduced until 2028/29 to give providers time to plan for its introduction. Providers will pay the levy one year in arrears, to help with their financial planning.