Trump’s Tariffs and Your Tuition Fees

How Americans Are Feeling About Trump’s New Monetary Policy

Some names have been changed. Tariffs may have changed by the time of publishing.

“If there’s a recession, how am I gonna be able to find a job this summer?” Honey Rothert, a first-year International Relations and Sustainable Development student, works in the hospitality industry in the US. Rothert worries her customers will stop eating out if Americans’ cost of living balloons after Donald Trump’s recent tariffs. It’s not just summer jobs on the line, though. Phil, an American parent of a St Andrews student, worries that increased plane ticket costs and living expenses will make St Andrews much more expensive for his daughter. After the pound-to-dollar ratio suddenly rose by eight cents, he calculated that “a year’s cost of education jumped by about $3,000 in one day”. 

Last week, Trump announced new tariffs that apply to most of the world, taxing imports from China to France. Trump’s plans include both a ten per cent “base line” tariff that applies to almost all US imports as well as a ‘reciprocal’ tariff, which applies to 57 countries that Trump says have “high tariffs and other unfair economic practices that have hurt American exporters” (though it’s actually based on the US trade deficit). The price of everything from strawberries to Swiss watches is about to go up for American consumers.

Looking to lease a flat in St Andrews for the first time, Rothert is concerned that she won’t make enough money over the summer to cover her own term-time expenses because of the expected high cost of living. “I live in a tourist town, so our whole industry’s gonna fall apart if there’s a recession and people’s pocketbooks start to struggle,” she said. Though Rothert might not work in the directly affected automobile or supply chain industries, most people will feel the sting of high prices, budget more, and suddenly the waitressing job she relies on might not be able to pay her enough. “Are people going to spend money on fancy cookies? Will they go out for pizza? Will they go on vacation?” She admits that her worries feel small compared to the dramatic chaos of the current global markets, but that’s the trickle-down effect of tariffs. 

On his part, Phil confirmed Rothert’s worries — he’s reconsidering future travel and other major purchases since the tariffs started “wreaking havoc” on financial markets. Even if the stock market restabilises, the uncertainty of it all scares him. On a day-to-day level, Phil thinks he might have to stop paying down debt so that he has enough cash on hand for any unexpected costs that come along. Long-term, “when you take a fifteen per cent hit on your savings, it impacts your ability to pay for retirement.” Not only does he worry about his savings, but also those of his retired parents. At the ages of 85, he doesn’t know what they’ll do if their savings start to disappear. Beyond that, the family business he runs has to “play defense” instead of thinking about new opportunities. “That’s not how you grow a business — we’re just trying to make sure we actually have cash on hand to pay our employees.”

“It’s frustrating to realise I’m gonna suffer because of other people’s decisions and there’s nothing I can do about it,” Rothert said. Phil agreed: “How didn’t people — and people in the finance industry — see this coming when they voted for Trump?” During his campaign, Trump often said tariffs were a favourite negotiating tool, but many dismissed it as “sabre-rattling”, Phil told me. He struggled to understand how anyone could support these tariffs. “Slowing trade is not good. It means we might have to change my [daughter’s] spending. Should we move all her funds over to a Scottish bank account now in case the dollar weakens?”

In terms of paying St Andrews tuition fees, “my family is already kind of stretched”, Rothert says. With an older brother also in university and a younger brother about to start his first year, the tariffs hit Rothert’s family with new financial concerns. “We need a new car, but with the price of cars going up and my tuition and my brother’s tuition, we might be riding around with our bumper falling off for another few years.” Rothert’s parents have also been renovating their house in hopes of selling it for some profit — years of work which “could go down the drain” if the housing market stalls. Even if it doesn’t, the materials for remaining improvements will cost a lot more (30 per cent of softwood in the US comes from Canada).

The overseas fee is £30,160 for the 2024-25 academic year, and will go up to £31,670 for 2025-26. Before this year, all overseas students had their fees fixed to the rate at time of entry, but 2024 entrants onward will have to cope with three to five per cent annual increases. “If St Andrews is forced to raise prices suddenly because tariffs make everything more expensive, I don’t know what we’d do,” Phil said of his daughter’s tuition fees. “We’re lucky because we started saving for university when she was born, but still, it’s nerve wracking that we no longer have fixed tuition.” 

As a young person putting money into the stock market for the first time, Rothert said that all the uncertainty is especially frustrating. “I’m just trying to put myself forward and do the responsible thing and I’m getting screwed over,” she said, talking about the small retirement fund she’s tried to build. “My savings account is crumbling into pieces, the exchange rate is bad and I’m just trying to start my financial life.”

“But the fact is that the American public voted Donald Trump into office and we’re gonna get what we asked for — financial insecurity and a president who doesn’t care about us.” She laughed. “What’s new?”

Illustration by Holly Ward | Photograph from Creative Commons