In October 2025, the UK Department for Education (DfE) confirmed it will remove the additional funding that state schools currently receive for running the IB Diploma Programme (DP).

Funding will cease from the 2026–27 academic year, with a transitional period in 2026–27 to ease the shift.  Schools will still be free to offer the IB Diploma, but they’ll have to fund it from their standard budgets without the extra uplift that has been provided by the government.

The government states it wants to “reprioritise” funds toward subjects thought to lead to good jobs and economic growth, especially in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) and further maths.

Critics argue that losing the supported funding will limit pupils’ ability to choose this richer, more holistic path which in turns will have long-term academic advantage.

This is likely to lead to the IB Diploma only being offered in the independent education sector.