UK considers £450 million annual payment for EU student fee access

Negotiators weigh industrial access and university income

The UK government plans to pay up to £450 million every year to allow European Union students to pay the same fees as British students. This spending depends on whether Brussels grants Britain access to its Made in Europe industrial programme. British officials say they will only grant concessions on student fees if the EU allows entry to its proposed protectionist industrial scheme that imposes trade restrictions on countries outside the bloc. One negotiator stated that the government is willing to give Europeans what they want on fees but must get something significant in return because the biggest prize is access to Made in Europe. Prime Minister Andy Burnham wants to use a Brussels summit on 20 November to demonstrate closer ties with the bloc and to lay out options for how the relationship could develop, such as full re-entry. Former Chancellor Rachel Reeves praised Burnham on Sunday for his willingness to think boldly about the UK relationship with Europe. She will say in a speech at Harvard on Monday that the economic interests, common values and basic geographical reality of the UK all point towards Europe.

Negotiators have worked for months on these deals. EU officials want students from the continent to pay just over £9,000 a year instead of international fees that can exceed £60,000. This demand briefly stopped negotiations earlier this year because British officials felt blindsided by its inclusion in talks. While the UK wants industrial access, the EU demands lower fees. France recently changed its stance and said any country in the single market as of 1 January 2020 could join if they align on trade measures. I find the UK attempt to balance these massive financial liabilities against industrial access quite messy. The UK was excluded from the definition of ‘European’ for the purposes of the scheme, which prompted warnings from the British government and the UK car industry.

Two sources who have seen the costings told the Guardian that under the most expensive scenario, which involves reducing fees to the same level as domestic students and very high levels of demand, the government could pay £450m a year. Another source said the true cost was likely lower. Mark Corver, an analyst at Campus Numerics, calculated the sector would need £140m in the first year and £400m across a three-year period. Negotiators are also discussing a youth mobility scheme where up to 80,000 young Europeans could come to Britain to work, live and study. This figure sits below the 100,000 to 150,000 quota that EU member states demanded. Ten days ago, the EU discussed decoupling the discussion on fees from the joint statement at the summit to defer any agreement for six months. The first draft of a joint statement will be presented to EU ambassadors on Wednesday with room for text to be added or deleted up to 20 November.

Security data and trade tariffs

Security access forms another part of the talks. The UK wants access to Eurodac, an EU database holding fingerprints of asylum seekers from age six, and the Schengen Information System II, which holds records of fugitives, missing persons and stolen goods. EU diplomats warn that Eurodac was not built for law enforcement and sharing data with a non-EU member may face opposition from some states. Magnus Brunner, the EU commissioner for migration, was supposed to meet home secretary Shabana Mahmood in London two weeks ago, but the meeting was cancelled. Work continues between the Cabinet Office and the European Commission before the summit. The UK is also working to secure access to the Schengen Information System II, which gives real-time alerts on cross-border movements. Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds recently said he would not set tariff policy in response to pressure from Brussels regarding Chinese electric vehicles. This refusal comes because the UK maintains much lower tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles than the EU.