Ministers have been blasted for axing bursaries for overseas applicants hoping to become trainee physics and languages teachers without notice.
The mid-year change was quietly announced at 5pm on Thursday.
It means overseas students are no longer eligible for sizeable financial incentives to train to teach physics or languages.
The Department for Education said the decision to “pause” overseas eligibility was taken because recruitment has improved.
But experts warned this was “not a time for scaling back” approaches to improving teacher supply, and have criticised the DfE for rolling out the change without warning.
Recruitment picture improving
Bursaries and scholarships to train as a physics or languages teacher were expanded to international students in 2023, as recruitment lagged significantly below target. This year’s funding includes a £29,000 physics bursary and £20,000 bursary for languages.
Physics recruitment has almost doubled since 2023, rising from 564 to 1,095 postgraduate trainees, while modern foreign languages recruitment increased by nearly a third, from 1,105 to 1,422.
However, the government still missed its recruitment targets for the subjects last year.
A DfE spokesperson said: “We have paused the bursary offer for international candidates in physics and languages as a result. Candidates that already have an offer are unaffected, and we will continue to review the offer ahead of the next recruitment cycle.”
In 2025-26, almost two-thirds of new physics trainees were from overseas. While 37 per cent were from the UK, 5 per cent were from the wider European Economic Area (EEA), and 58 per cent were of other nationalities.
For modern foreign languages, 27 per cent were from the EEA and 15 per cent other nationalities.
‘Deeply disappointing’
The DfE updated its guidance on Thursday to say that from 5pm on 7 May, trainees are only eligible for bursaries or scholarships “if they are entitled to support under the student finance criteria”. Non-UK nationals are not eligible for student finance support.
The DfE said candidates who held an ITT offer before 5pm on 7 May are not affected, and it is contacting all relevant applicants directly.
Tony McBride, director of advocacy at the Institute of Physics, said the change, in the middle of a recruitment cycle, “is deeply disappointing” and will leave many candidates “in limbo”.
He said the expansion of bursary eligibility “has been flawed from the outset, with little account seemingly taken of the huge increase in applications which teacher training providers had to deal with or the challenges faced by international student teachers, including securing visas after qualifying.”
“Meanwhile England continues to face a national shortage of physics teachers.
“Instead of unpredictable piecemeal reforms we need positive action that works for recruits, training providers and schools, as part of a holistic approach to recruitment, alongside retention and retraining.”
Warning over long-term access to languages
Meanwhile Professor René Koglbauer, chair of the Association for Language Learning, warned the move “will have a direct and longer-term impact on children’s access to a broad curriculum, including languages”.
“The most immediate impact will be on applicants who have already applied but not yet secured offers, many of whom will now find training financially unviable.”
Koglbauer said some providers were already reporting international candidates, who were due to be interviewed this week, “will now almost certainly have to withdraw”.
“There are also real risks to course viability for providers,” he added. “In a subject that already struggles to recruit, policy stability is absolutely crucial. Greater notice and transitional protections would have been more appropriate.”
Emma Hollis, CEO of the National Association of School-Based Teacher Trainers (NASBTT) agreed the change “is exceptionally unhelpful and creates avoidable disruption for ITT providers”.
“Our members are particularly concerned by the lack of fair warning,” she said, calling for the DfE to “consider clearer monitoring and early-warning mechanisms, such as live funding indicators”.
Stefanie Sullivan and Joanna McIntyre, joint executive directors of the Universities’ Council for the Education of Teachers, also urged the DfE to “explore ways of avoiding mid-cycle policy changes”.
‘Not a time for scaling back’
The DfE has framed the change as a pause, to be reviewed for the next recruitment cycle.
Jack Worth, teacher workforce lead at the National Foundation for Educational Research, said the move “could lead to trainee numbers in these subjects falling, given that eligibility changes introduced previously had contributed to a big rise in trainees.”
In 2025-26, physics saw the highest number of entrants since statistics began in 2014-15 – but still missed its target by 22 per cent.
NFER forecasts predicts it will recruit “well above” its target in 2026-27, at 147 per cent.
But Worth warned the physics target “does not capture the deep underlying shortages of physics specialists within science teaching”.
“This is therefore not a time for scaling back effective approaches to improving physics teacher supply, and the government should continue to pursue cost-effective and well-targeted recruitment and retention measures.”
NFER analysis previously showed persistent under-supply of physics specialists had left at least 600 secondary schools, of around 2,300 it looked at, without a physics specialist.
But Worth also pointed to research by the Association for Science Education that suggested international trainees may be less likely to enter state-sector teaching due to visa issues and financial pressures.
“This raises important questions about whether the approximately £73m spent on the policy between 2023 and 2025 translated into significantly greater teacher supply and represented good value for money.”
NFER forecasts predict modern foreign languages will also exceed its target this year (107 per cent).
MFL hit 94 per cent of its target in 2025-26 – up from just 43 per cent the previous year.