Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to exempting PhD students 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. The income raised by the levy will be reinvested into skills.

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.