EU insists on tuition fees cut as price of Brexit reset

LONDON — Brussels is insisting that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer agree to a cut in tuition fees for EU students as the price of his Brexit reset, according to two officials familiar with the state of negotiations.

EU officials say they are frustrated that the U.K. is yet to engage on the topic in talks — which are meant to finish by the summer.

“It needs to be worked out before talks can be concluded,” one EU official told POLITICO.

“There is some frustration on our side that we haven’t reached a point in negotiations where this issue has been openly discussed.”

The EU official added that a cut in fees for European students was “a very key point for our member states” and “a clear interest for us.”

Before Brexit, EU students paid “home” U.K. tuition fees of about £9,500 a year in England — but are now subject to eye-watering “international” rates that can lock out all but the wealthiest students.

Overseas rates can range from roughly double the U.K. rate for some courses to huge sums for the most prestigious degrees, such as the £62,820 a year international fee to study computer science at Oxford University.

Under pressure from its member countries, the EU wants fees cut for Europeans studying in the U.K. as part of talks to set up a “youth experience” scheme.

But Starmer and his negotiators are under pressure from British universities not to accede to the demand.

Universities say they will face a cash crisis if lucrative foreign fee income is cut and not replaced, with one recently published analysis by the Russell Group suggesting the sector would be left £580 million out of pocket.

A U.K. official said the home fees demand wasn’t mentioned in the “common understanding” drawn up as a blueprint for talks last year — and that negotiations are about implementing that document.

The agreement does not explicitly mention tuition fees and only says the youth scheme should “facilitate the participation of young people from the European Union and the United Kingdom” in areas including study.

But the EU official quoted above said that, while it was debatable whether the change was alluded to in last year’s communique, it was nevertheless the EU’s position.

They stressed that other issues under discussion, like the planned agri-food agreement or linking emissions trading systems, were largely U.K. “asks” — and that the EU also had its own interest to pursue.

“It’s important to look at the position from the other side,” they added.

A U.K. government spokesperson said: “We will not give a running commentary on ongoing talks.”

They added: “We are working together with the EU to create a balanced youth experience scheme which will create new opportunities for young people to live, work, study and travel.

“Any final scheme must be time-limited, capped and will be based on our existing youth mobility schemes, which do not include access to home tuition fee status.”