Future EU students at universities in England will no longer have the right to pay the same tuition fees as home students, in highly controversial plans being drawn up by the government.

BuzzFeed News has learned that Education Secretary Damian Hinds is proposing to withdraw home fee status and financial support from EU students starting courses in the 2021–22 academic year, whether Britain leaves the union with a deal or without one.

The plan would see new EU students charged the significantly higher fees currently paid by international students from non-EU countries.

The proposals, which are not finalised, will ignite a Cabinet debate about whether Theresa May is effectively seeking to crack down on the number of foreign students at English universities, and the message it sends about her government’s vision of post-Brexit Britain. Cabinet ministers and even some education ministers are likely to oppose the plans.

May has previously clashed with colleagues over her insistence that foreign students be included in immigration figures. Former chancellor George Osborne has said that May was the only senior minister in David Cameron’s government to believe that students should be included in the numbers.

At present, EU students studying at English universities pay the same tuition fees as English students.

Last year, the government guaranteed home fee status for new EU students starting courses in 2019–20, with Hinds saying he wanted to give “clarity and certainty” to the first intake of European students post-Brexit. The Scottish government has guaranteed home fee status for EU students starting courses this year and also in 2020–21.