University levy will deter international students from studying here - Yorkshire Post Letters

The Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson rightly encourages British universities to expand overseas so that lots more students can benefit from the high quality education these institutions offer (The Yorkshire Post, January 20).

However, a lifetime of teaching French and Spanish to teenagers tells me that nothing is as valuable to guarantee progress as linguistic immersion in the country whose language is studied. The same can be said for social and cultural immersion also.

That's why the Labour government's decision to charge a levy of £925 per year per overseas student is difficult to comprehend since while the levy, which applies to England only, isn't charged directly to the student, the cost is likely to be passed in higher and therefore dissuasive fees. What's going on here?

We should be encouraging intelligent people from outside these islands to study here, get to know us and hopefully develop a useful lifelong connection which will create partnerships that bring tangible economic benefits. One such partnership was the Anglo-French Concorde which made its first flight 50 years ago.

It's in everyone's interest to see the incomprehensible folly of Brexit reversed so that the UK can be once again fully integrated into the economic development of this continent.