London prepares cut-price tuition offer for EU students at upcoming summit

Why it matters

Before the UK's departure from the EU, European students paid the same subsidised rates as domestic British undergraduates and could tap into tuition fee loan systems. That status vanished when the transition arrangements expired, instantly categorising EU citizens as overseas applicants and subjecting them to uncapped international rates that often reach several times the domestic level. The resulting collapse in EU enrolments hit British universities' finances and severed long-standing student exchange routes. For prospective European students, any reduction in fees directly alters the arithmetic of whether an English-language degree across the Channel remains financially possible.