University tuition fees for EU students have become one of the sharpest disputes in the run-up to the UK-EU summit on 20 November, after a leaked draft of the summit declaration promised equal treatment on fees and at least six EU member states demanded a firm British commitment before the meeting.

According to the draft text seen by the higher education publication Rapporteur, the EU and UK will work towards an agreement providing for “equal treatment with nationals as regards tuition fees for EU students in the UK and for UK students in the EU”. The draft sets a target of sorting out the fees question within six months.

That wording matters because, since Brexit, most EU students starting courses in the UK have paid international fees rather than the home rate. Those fees can reach £38,000 a year, compared with the domestic undergraduate rate of £9,535 in England, or a fee cap of £9,790 in 2026-27. Some universities charge overseas students several times the home rate.

How much could it cost?

The Guardian has reported that ministers are willing to spend up to £450 million a year compensating universities for the income they would lose, but only if Brussels allows the UK into its proposed Made in Europe industrial programme. That £450 million figure is the most expensive Treasury scenario, based on fees falling to domestic levels and very high demand. One official described the figure as “speculative”, and the true cost is likely to be lower.

Other estimates are higher still. The Russell Group, which represents 24 research-intensive universities, has put the cost of home fee status for EU students at around £570 million and wants the issue kept out of any summit deal. Analyst Mark Corver has estimated the cost would start at about £150 million and rise to £450 million once three year-groups were in the system.

The Telegraph reported in October that the EU side had floated a halfway rate of around £13,000, roughly the average cost of delivering a degree, based on a KPMG figure of £12,317. Delivering that through regulation would be more complicated than simply restoring home fee status, because it would mean creating a new fee category.

Six states want a firm pledge

The timing is now the main point of disagreement. The European Commission has proposed deferring a final agreement on fees for six months, but at least six member states want a firm commitment by the summit on 20 November, according to the Guardian. They argue that progress on fees should come alongside the wider economic package being negotiated, rather than being left until later.

The fees question sits inside a much larger set of talks. The summit is expected to cover a food and farming trade agreement, linking the UK and EU emissions trading systems, and a youth experience scheme allowing young people to live, work, study or travel across the Channel. The UK government has confirmed that any youth scheme would be capped, time-limited and subject to visas, rather than a return to unrestricted freedom of movement.

Why applications fell after Brexit

The stakes for universities are high. Research from the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory found that applications from EU residents for undergraduate courses in Britain fell by approximately 58 per cent between 2020 and 2024, after home fee status ended for most new EU students from August 2021.

Before Brexit, eligible EU students generally paid fees comparable to domestic students. Restoring that position would require amending the regulations made under the Education (Fees and Awards) Act 1983, which allow higher fees to be charged to students without a specified connection to the UK. That can be done by statutory instrument rather than new primary legislation, but the hard questions are who qualifies, whether loans are included, and what happens in Scotland, where Scottish students pay no tuition fees.

The EU’s negotiating mandate says equal treatment should not extend to study and maintenance grants or loans. That means EU students paying the home rate would still have to pay upfront, without the income-contingent loan available to home students, so the saving in practice would be smaller than the gap between the two headline fees suggests.

Nothing is final until the summit. The draft declaration is still being negotiated, text can be added or removed up to 20 November, and ministers insist no deal is agreed until then. But with six member states pressing for a pledge and the leaked text already promising equal treatment, cheaper fees for EU students now look like a question of when, rather than whether.