£925 International Student Levy on Higher Edacation Providers

Higher education providers in England will pay £925 per international student per year from 1 August 2028, under draft legislation published today by the Department for Education.

The draft finance bill sets out the legal framework for the levy announced at the Autumn Budget 2025. The charge will apply to registered higher education providers for each international student registered on a higher education course during an academic year, running from 1 August to 31 July, with the first charging year being 2028/29.

The levy will be collected by the Office for Students on behalf of the Secretary of State. Unpaid amounts will be recoverable as a debt due to the Crown, with regulations able to charge interest on late payments and impose civil penalties on providers that fail to comply.

The government says proceeds will be fully reinvested into higher education and skills, including the reintroduction of maintenance grants from 2028/29. Grants of up to £1,000 a year will be available to students from households with incomes at or below £25,000, studying priority subjects aligned with the industrial strategy in higher education at a college or university. The eligible subject list is yet to be confirmed.

The draft bill gives the Secretary of State powers to set a levy free allowance for each provider and to exempt categories of students, with both to be confirmed through regulations. At the Budget, the government said providers would receive an allowance covering their first 220 international students each year. A power to uprate the £925 charge in line with inflation is also included.

The legislation contains an anniversary rule meaning continuing students are counted per full year of registration rather than per academic year overlapped, though this is disapplied for the first charging year. Liability is tied to the statutory data returns providers make under the Higher Education and Research Act 2017.

The government projects the levy will raise around £445 million in its first year, rising to £480 million by 2030/31. The draft legislation follows a technical consultation which ran from 26 November 2025 to 18 February 2026, and will now be included in the Finance Bill.