University tuition fees in England will rise up to £9,535 next year to ‘secure the future of higher education’, the Education Secretary has said.
The previous government raised the cap on university tuition fees in England to £9,000 per year in 2012, but it has been frozen at £9,250 for domestic undergraduate students since 2017.
But Education secretary Bridget Phillipson told the Commons this afternoon that tuition fees will rise to over £9,500 in October 2025 and £10,500 by 2029.
Ms Phillipson said the changes were needed to secure universities’ financial future.
She told MPs: ‘We will fix the foundations, we will secure the future of higher education so that students can benefit from a world-class education for generations to come.
‘That is why I am announcing today that in line with the forecast set out in the Budget last week, from April 2025 we will be increasing the maximum cap for tuition fees, in line with inflation, to £9,535, an increase of £285 per academic year.’
She added: ‘Increasing the fee cap has not been an easy decision, but I want to be crystal clear that this will not cost graduates more each month as they start to repay their loans.
‘Universities are responsible for managing their own finances and must act to remain sustainable. But members across this house will agree that it is no use keeping tuition fees down for future students if the universities are not there for them to attend.’
The announcement is likely to provoke a strong backlash, given that Keir Starmer pledged to abolish tuition fees when running to be Labour leader in 2020.
He later walked back the statement last year after claiming the country was now in a ‘different financial situation,’ and said he was choosing to prioritise the NHS.
Professor Shitij Kapur, vice-chancellor of King’s College London (KCL), had previously suggested that universities in England needed between £12,000 and £13,000 per year in tuition fees to meet costs.
Home Office figures released last month showed there was a 16% drop in visa applications from overseas students – to whom universities can charge significantly higher tuition fees – between July and September.
Since January, international students in the UK have been banned from bringing dependants with them, apart from on some postgraduate research courses or courses with government-funded scholarships.
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