From 2028, English universities will pay £925 a year for most international students. Reputation is the only thing that lets you pass that on.

From 1 August 2028, universities in England will pay a levy of £925 a year for each international student they register. In its July consultation response, the government said it still intends to exempt the first 220 students at each provider, which takes up to £203,500 a year off the bill. Above that, every international student carries the charge, including those taught through franchised or subcontracted provision.

The money is meant to fund targeted maintenance grants for disadvantaged students. The Department for Education’s own impact analysis estimates the levy will mean around 14,000 fewer international students in 2028/29, rising to between 15,500 and 17,000 a year after that.

Most of the commentary so far has been about the hit to budgets. That’s fair, but it misses the more useful question for anyone in marketing or strategy: who will be able to pass the cost on, and who won’t?

Pricing power is a reputation outcome

Universities UK has argued that international students are sensitive to price. They are, but they aren’t equally sensitive about every university. A family weighing a degree abroad will pay more for a name they recognise and trust, with outcomes they can see and graduates they’ve heard of. They’ll pay less, or go elsewhere, for an institution they can’t place.

That’s what pricing power is, and it’s built the same way as any other part of reputation: slowly, through evidence and through the people who speak for you. The levy doesn’t change how reputation works. It puts a price on not having enough of it in the markets you recruit from.

The levy is about £925 a head. That’s roughly what a weak reputation abroad will now cost you, every year, for every student.

What I’d ask a board to look at before 2028

How we’re seen in our top five source markets. I mean there, rather than at home or in the rankings. What do families, teachers and agents in Lagos, Delhi or Kuala Lumpur actually believe about us, and what would they say if asked to compare us with three alternatives?

Which programmes could carry a price rise, and why. Some courses have outcomes and employer recognition that justify a premium. Others are competing almost entirely on cost. The levy will hit those two groups very differently, and the board should see that split now.

Who is telling our story abroad. Agents, partners and alumni do more to shape reputation in many markets than anything a university publishes. If they can’t explain what makes you distinctive, nobody can.

What evidence we can put in front of a sceptical parent. Graduate destinations, employer partnerships and visible success stories from that country. Claims are cheap. Evidence is what justifies a fee.

The opportunity

Two years is enough time to make a real difference to how a university is seen in a handful of priority markets, but only if the work starts now. The institutions that treat the levy purely as a cost to be absorbed will spend 2028 cutting. The ones that treat it as a reason to sharpen their reputation abroad will have a stronger hand when the charge arrives, and every year after it.

I’ll be talking to international directors about how they’re preparing on Season 2 of the podcast. If your team is working through this now, I’d be glad to hear what you’re finding.

Jonathan Sabarre FCIM MBA is Principal Consultant at QS Quacquarelli Symonds, a keynote speaker and host of Marketing Greats in Higher Education. Get the weekly email or invite him to speak.