News
EU insists discounted tuition fees be included in Brexit reset deal
A news report from The Telegraph explains the EU is refusing to back down on its demands that the EU reset cannot go ahead if the Youth Mobility Scheme does not include EU students being charged tuition fees at the home rate of £9,790 per year, rather than the international student rate of £38,000 per year. The Telegraph believes Keir Starmer had agreed to the substantial discount before resigning as prime minister (reported here), but until Andrew Burnham signs it off, a verbal IOU is only as good as the paper it's written on. The EU will therefore insist this very costly concession is confirmed at the next UK-EU meeting, for which a date has still to be agreed.
The report follows an estimate by the Russell Group of British universities that the loss of income and unrecovered costs to the UK's higher education sector from discounting the tuition fees could be as high as a staggering £580m per year. The top UK universities are already full-to-bursting by accepting more domestic students to maintain their income levels after international student numbers have fallen. Finding additional spaces for EU students could mean British students missing out on places or numbers becoming even more overcrowded.
Further costs to HM Treasury would include the possible greater loss on unpaid student loans by EU students who leave the UK after graduating and fail to pay off their debt. The issue of financing discounted tuition fees to EU students when universities are facing a funding crisis is likely to be a key test of the new Chancellor who also needs to fund improved defence spending that caused his resignation as Defence Secretary from Keir Starmer's government.
The Youth Mobility Scheme is by no means a settled matter and Britain Unbound shall be monitoring it closely.
Brussels wants ‘Buy European’ but voters lean domestic, poll shows
New polling by Public First shared exclusively with Politico has found higher support for by voters for their own national governments buying nationally than having to buy "European". Politico reported: "In 23 of the 25 countries surveyed by Public First, people expressed greater support for public procurement rules that gave an advantage to products made in their own country compared with those made elsewhere in Europe, the findings challenge the push for a European preference in public procurement in the EU’s proposed Industrial Accelerator Act."
Support for a domestic preference was slightly above 50 per cent on average, while support for a European preference was just below half. With new rules being introduced by the EU the proposed EU Reset could force Great Britain into alignment on procurement, meaning the whole UK would be forcibly opened up to European suppliers – when the Brexit freedom meant GB institutions could decide to buy British. Unfortunately the extent of the freedom did not extend to Northern Ireland which, for procurement rules, remains within the EU jurisdiction. If there should be an EU-UK reset it should be to extend our Brexit freedoms across the whole UK.
