Tuition fees in England will rise to more than £9,500 next year to “secure the future of higher education”, the Education Secretary said.
Bridget Phillipson said increasing the £9,250 maximum tuition fees for domestic students to £9,535 next year had “not been an easy decision”.
University tuition fees will rise for the first time in eight years to help universities facing “severe financial challenges”, the Education Secretary said.
It comes as university leaders have warned of significant financial concerns as a result of frozen tuition fees paid by domestic students and a fall in international students.
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.
In a statement to the Commons on Monday, Ms Phillipson also announced that maintenance loans for university students in England will rise next year, which the Government said will provide students with £414 extra per year.
University tuition fees will rise in line with inflation, by 3.1%, and the changes will come into effect from the 2025/26 academic year.
Announcing the rise, Ms Phillipson 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.”
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.”
Universities UK has responded to the government's announcement on maintenance loans and tuition fees
— Universities UK (@UniversitiesUK) November 4, 2024
👇https://t.co/hMfMjD6kxU https://t.co/WiVCj0ZBZo
Maintenance loans available to low-income families will also rise in line with inflation from next year to help students with living costs.
The Education Secretary said: “It is no use keeping tuition fees down for future students if the universities are not there for them to attend, nor if students can’t afford to support themselves while they study.”
She added that maximum tuition fees for classroom-based foundation years courses will be reduced to £5,760 from the 2025/26 academic year.
The Government is calling on universities to step up work to boost access for disadvantaged students in exchange for the increased tuition fees.
The Department for Education (DfE) will announce a package of higher education reforms in the coming months.
In its assessment of university finances in May, the higher education regulator the Office for Students (OfS) said 40% of universities in England were predicted to be in deficit in 2023/24.
Universities UK (UUK), which represents 141 universities, recently called on the Government to increase funding for teaching in England by linking tuition fees to inflation and restoring the teaching grant.
The blueprint from UUK, published in September, said that teaching funding per student in England is at its “lowest point since 2004” and the current £9,250 fee would have been worth £5,924 in 2012/13.
Labour's decision to hike tuition fees is bad for students and will do nothing to solve the crisis in higher education.
— UCU (@ucu) November 4, 2024
Read the full statement 👇 https://t.co/c3dO5nFFSD pic.twitter.com/wg19oFTMAs
Earlier this year, the University and College Union (UCU) warned that universities faced “catastrophe” if they were not given an emergency rescue package.
Following the announcement on Monday, Jo Grady, general secretary of the UCU, said the hike to tuition fees was “both economically and morally wrong”.
She said: “Taking more money from debt-ridden students and handing it to overpaid underperforming vice-chancellors is ill conceived and won’t come close to addressing the sector’s core issues.”
Alex Stanley, vice president for higher education at the National Union of Students (NUS) , said: “Higher education is in crisis right now.
“Students are being asked to foot the bill to literally keep the lights and heating on in their uni buildings and prevent their courses from closing down.
“This is, and can only ever be, a sticking plaster. Universities cannot continue to be funded by an ever-increasing burden of debt on students.”
But Vivienne Stern, chief executive of UUK, said the Government’s decision was “the right thing to do”.
She added: “A decade-long freeze in England has seen inflation erode the real value of student fees and maintenance loans by around a third, which is completely unsustainable for both students and universities.
“Keeping pace with inflation stops the value of fees going down year after year.
“Importantly, this change will not see students paying more to study up front; repayments are linked to earnings above a £25,000 threshold. The increase in maintenance loans is also very welcome and important.”
