From talking to colleagues across the sector I'm clear there is unanimous support for the need to improve student maintenance - we just don't agree that this is the right way to pay for it.

So the likely outcome is that this will further damage the financial sustainability of our universities: fewer international students, with a tax on the income from those that remain.

As there is global price-sensitive competition for these students, many universities may just have to absorb the cost of the levy. As some VCs have observed, in such challenging financial times if universities could increase their international fees by 6% they would have done so already.

However HE leaders are unified in opposition to the proposed source of funding: a levy - likely 6% - on international fee income. International students, who contribute almost £42bn to the UK economy, may well feel it is unfair to be asked to fund something which doesn't benefit them directly.

Of course given the growing gap between the value of maintenance loans and actual living costs, these grants need to provide additional funding rather than merely displacing loans. Additional funding without additional debt could be a real driver for social mobility.

On the one hand the reintroduction of maintenance grants has to be seen as a real positive. Implemented well, this could address a key reason why young people from low-income backgrounds struggle to access higher education: having enough money to live on.

All good advice, although in places it does suggest that presenters should be ready to deal with bad behaviour from Exec members. A good chair will, of course, have created a culture which does not allow this!

As Vice-Chancellor of @northumbriauni.bsky.social I’m proud to lead an institution where we promote fairness in a community where all students and staff feel they belong.

Those working in forward thinking organisations such as universities should not only resist such pressures, we must re-double our efforts in advancement and speak out in support of EDI. Our wonderful, diverse communities deserve nothing less.