Campaigners have stressed that UK universities should keep receiving international tuition fees from European students, as the UK and the EU continue negotiations on a Youth Experience Scheme which can restore opportunities.
It comes after reports that the EU is urging the UK to "agree to a cut in tuition fees for EU students", according to Politico, with pushback from UK universities who are facing "financial precarity".
The UK Trade and Business Commission (UKTBC) recommended in its recent report that the UK government "should not accept the EU’s request to charge EU students ‘domestic fees’" and to "consider consulting the higher education sector" on the issue in future.
The report also stressed that such a request should be "regarded as a normal aspect of balanced negotiations".
Naomi Smith, Chief Executive of Best for Britain, said:
“British and European young people deserve to have their opportunities - to live, work, and travel, enriching their futures while strengthening our economies and societies - restored as quickly as possible, and the UKTBC’s recommendations set out how the UK and the EU can make this a reality, unlocking progress towards deeper cooperation and beneficial alignment.
“Any mature negotiation will always require balancing competing priorities, and with UK universities facing such financial precarity, our universities should continue to receive non-domestic tuition fees from EU students, fully in line with our other successful existing youth mobility schemes, while the UK government considers consulting the higher education sector on this question in the future, as the UKTBC report recommends.”