Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to the white paper published on 12 May, Restoring control over the immigration system, whether the policy priorities for the proposed levy on tuition fees for international students who attend Scottish higher education institutions will be set by the Scottish Government.

The immigration white paper sets out a series of measures that will achieve a reduction in net migration, while maintaining the UK’s globally competitive offer to international students and making a significant contribution to growth by boosting our skills base. This includes the commitment to explore the introduction of a levy on higher education (HE) provider income from international students, with proceeds to be reinvested in the domestic HE and skills system. We will set out more details around the levy in the Autumn Budget.

Analysis of the potential impacts is based on the levy applying to English HE providers only. We will fully consult all the devolved governments on the implementation of the international student levy.