\n<\/p>\n
A levy on tuition fees paid by international students is \u201cwrong\u201d, will \u201churt the sector\u201d and is \u201cnot in the long-term interests\u201d of the UK, according to the vice-chancellor of one of the country\u2019s leading universities.<\/p>\n
Duncan Ivison, who took over as president and vice-chancellor of the University of Manchester (UoM) last year, was speaking ahead of the budget later this month when the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is expected to flesh out her plans for the proposed 6% surcharge.<\/p>\n
A higher education veteran who has held leadership roles in Australia and Canada, Ivison said the UK has a golden opportunity to become the global destination for international students, at a time when there is a cap on overseas students in Canada and US universities are under attack from the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
\u201cHigher education is something the UK does really, really well. That\u2019s why I came to Manchester. It is a kind of jewel in the crown,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a chance to really become a global destination for the best and the brightest. Now we still can do that, but things like the levy don\u2019t help and that\u2019s frustrating for me, more than anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ivison, who joined Manchester from the University of Sydney, welcomed the government\u2019s commitment to increase tuition fees for domestic students in line with inflation: \u201cI know our students would prefer it didn\u2019t happen, but I think in the longer run it\u2019s better for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/span>One in five students at the University of Manchester are international.<\/span> Photograph: Campus Shots\/Alamy<\/p>\n But he urged ministers to reconsider the levy: \u201cI think the international student levy is the wrong policy to implement. I think it will hurt the sector. I think it\u2019s not in the long term interests of the UK either.\u201d<\/p>\n Analysts have suggested that if a 6% levy is introduced it would cost universities in England more than \u00a3600m a year, with leading institutions such as the UoM particularly hit.<\/p>\n Manchester has one of the biggest cohorts of international students in the country, with 10,000 enrolling from more than 160 countries. Chinese students are the largest group, constituting one in five of all students at the university.<\/p>\n The government has said the proceeds from the levy will pay for the return of maintenance grants for poorer students.<\/p>\n \u201cI fully support the return of maintenance grants but I think there are better ways to fund improving support for students, especially our most disadvantaged students,\u201d Ivison said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to cause financial pain for all of us. We don\u2019t know exactly how it\u2019s going to be implemented, but it could potentially cost us \u00a320-30m a year. We cannot simply pass on a 6% levy, if it is indeed a 6% levy, to our international students. We can\u2019t do that. We don\u2019t think the market will bear it.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what\u2019s happening and why it matters<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n \u201cWe would have to find ways to absorb that cost from our existing balance sheet so that\u2019s tough at a time when so many universities are struggling. We\u2019re in a solid financial position but we\u2019re exposed to the headwinds. Imagine that for an institution that\u2019s in a less robust financial condition. That\u2019s really tough.\u201d<\/p>\n The UK higher education sector is facing severe financial difficulties, resulting in mass redundancies and sweeping cuts to courses at many institutions.<\/p>\n Universities have relied on international students paying higher fees to make up for deficits from teaching UK students, whose tuition fees have been eroded by inflation, but recent immigration and visa changes have triggered a fall in international recruitment since 2023.<\/p>\n This week the UoM launched a \u00a3400m fundraising appeal to help build future resilience. \u201cWe\u2019re in a very solid position but we\u2019re not immune from the forces that are wreaking havoc in the sector,\u201d said Ivison.<\/p>\n \u201cWe think philanthropy needs to be a big part of our future. It gives you a bit of independence from the state. It allows you to do things you wouldn\u2019t otherwise be able to do, so it\u2019s a really important part of our thinking about future resilience and enabling us to do the transformative things we want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A levy on tuition fees paid by international students is \u201cwrong\u201d, will \u201churt the sector\u201d and is \u201cnot in the long-term interests\u201d of the UK, according to the vice-chancellor of one of the country\u2019s leading universities. Duncan Ivison, who took over as president and vice-chancellor of the University of Manchester (UoM) last year, was speaking<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[496,3630,495,519,531,135,8249,678,1168,1418,781],"class_list":{"0":"post-33737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-education","9":"tag-fees","10":"tag-higher","11":"tag-interest","12":"tag-international","13":"tag-leader","14":"tag-levy","15":"tag-students","16":"tag-top","17":"tag-tuition","18":"tag-university"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}