Taxing International Student Tuition

By Elizabeth Redden. Universities and community colleges in Washington State are objecting to a proposed bill that would increase tuition for international students by 20 percent at all public institutions. The bill, if passed, is expected to bring in $59.2 million in revenue over two years, but universities worry that they’re going to be priced – nay, taxed – out of the market.
“We might actually see reduced revenue from international students because they’d stop coming,” said Norm Arkans, a spokesman for the University of Washington. International undergraduate students at UW currently pay a nonresident tuition rate of just under $30,000; the proposed surcharge would increase their annual tuition by about $6,000. Furthermore, the revenue from the surcharge wouldn’t go directly to the university but instead to the state’s general fund. The expectation is that the revenue will be used to help fund the higher education budget and make up for a proposed 3 percent reduction in tuition for in-state students, but the bill doesn’t explicitly earmark the money for that purpose. Read more...