Britain is in a standoff with Brussels over a demand to reduce university tuition fees for European students, in a dispute that threatens to derail Keir Starmer’s planned EU reset.
EU officials say European students should pay “local” fees of around £9,500 a year as part of negotiations over a youth mobility scheme, rather than the higher international fee, which can top £60,000.
However, British negotiators say they were taken by surprise by the demand, which they say was not mentioned in the framework agreement signed last year and which would cost British universities approximately £140 million a year.
Sources say the disagreement has stalled talks with just three months left before a summit in Brussels in late June or early July.
The prime minister plans to use that summit to announce a series of deals on trade and travel designed to bolster his argument that closer ties with the EU are needed to boost the UK’s economic growth.
One of them said: “It is true that the talks have stalled and this is now the main issue on which both sides cannot reach an agreement.”
A British government spokesperson said: “Any final (youth mobility) plans should be time-limited, capped and will build on our existing youth mobility plans, which do not include access to local tuition.”
One British source described the idea of a tuition fee reduction as “a failure”.
The European Commission declined to comment on the negotiations, although a spokesperson said: “The UK and EU have underlined and reaffirmed their commitment to implementing the outcomes of the May 2025 summit in a timely manner. We will work together in our ongoing discussions in areas of shared interest.”
Starmer began talks on a range of issues last year as part of what ministers said was a “landmark” deal to improve the terms of the Brexit deal 10 years after the UK first voted to leave the EU.
The prime minister has put closer relations with the EU at the center of his economic plan, something the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will further emphasize at a conference on Tuesday explaining the government’s growth strategy.
Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Cabinet minister responsible for the negotiations, will arrive in Brussels on Monday to underline the Government’s position before a joint meeting of members of the British and European parliaments.
But in the negotiating room, a deal is proving elusive, with officials hard at work on three potential deals: one covering trade in food and agricultural products; one that covers carbon emissions; and one that expands visa freedoms for young people.
Sources briefed on the talks say the agricultural trade deal is close to completion after European officials accepted Britain could maintain its highest animal welfare standards as part of any deal.
Discussions are also thought to be well advanced over the carbon emissions deal, which would link carbon emissions trading schemes in the UK and EU and prevent Britain from having to pay a cross-border carbon tax. However, the youth mobility scheme, which ministers have rebranded as a youth experience scheme to allay fears about higher levels of migration, is causing a major hurdle.
EU leaders have instructed officials in Brussels to negotiate lowering fees for all European students in exchange for accepting British demands for a two-year limit on the scheme and a cap on student numbers of less than 100,000 a year. The instruction was delivered as part of the formal negotiating mandate given earlier this year by the European Council to the European Commission, which is conducting the talks.
Sources in Brussels say that since Brexit, the proportion of European students in the UK has fallen from 27% to 5%, and argue that the European middle class is being left out of British university education.
But UK officials say that while last year’s deal made explicit reference to a cap and time limit, there was no reference to a reduction in tariffs. They say that if the government were to accept Brussels’ demand, it would require in return a “really big” concession beyond the requirements the government had already set out.
UK officials are keen to make the scheme more flexible than what the EU proposes, for example allowing participants to switch between work, study or simply traveling as they wish.
Mark Corver, university funding analyst and director of Campus Numerics, said setting fees for EU students at the same level as British students would cost the sector £140m in the first year and £400m over the three years of a typical course.
Jamie Arrowsmith, director of Universities UK International, said: “We fully support the government’s position on the status of local fees. This would carry a very significant cost and risk undermining the financial sustainability of universities, which would not be in the best interests of the UK or EU, nor for future students.”
