University fees are on the way up. Here’s what parents and students need to know about the changes.
Tuition fees in England will rise to £9,535 in the next academic year (2025-26). The maximum universities can charge is currently £9,250 – a cap that has been in place since 2017. The fees typically cover lectures, tutorials, access to equipment, libraries and admin, among other things. The increase was approved by the government as a result of the financial problems in the university sector. It will apply to new students starting university next autumn, and those continuing their studies in their second and third years.
The rise only applies to students studying in England – for now. Where you study and where you are from dictate how much you pay. Anyone studying in English universities currently pays a maximum of £9,250, but Northern Irish students studying in Northern Ireland have a cap of £4,750. Scottish students studying in Scotland pay nothing. The Welsh government announced earlier this year that the cap on fees there would rise to £9,250 from September 2024, and it has yet to announce whether there will be a further increase. The Scottish government said in August it was committed to free education. There has as yet been no announcement about changes in Northern Ireland.
The tuition fee cap could hit £10,680 in 2029. The £285 increase for 2025-26 (3.1%) was calculated using the RPIX measure of inflation. This is similar to the retail prices index (RPI), but it excludes mortgage interest payments. The Institute for Fiscal Studies says: “If the government continues to increase fees in line with RPIX each year, the tuition fee cap could reach £10,680 in 2029-30 on current forecasts. If the government is planning to continue to raise the fee cap with inflation, it should say so.”
Maintenance loans will also be increasing – by up to £414 a year. Students can apply for a loan to help cover their living costs as well as one that finances their tuition. The maintenance loan is designed to help with costs such as accommodation and food, and how much you get depends on whether you live at home and where you will be studying, among other things. The maximum loan that students studying in London and living away from their parents can get will go up to £13,762 a year – a rise of £414. Someone living at home will see a £267 rise to £8,877, and a student living away from home but studying outside London will be able to get £317 more, up to a cap of £10,544. But Save the Student, a personal finance site, says students still face a shortfall in what they can borrow compared to what it costs to live. It says: “Loans now fall short of living costs by £504 every month – over double the shortfall from just four years ago.”
The rise in tuition fees won’t necessarily mean people will face higher repayments each year. Most student loans for tuition are taken out with the Student Loans Company, and repayments start after you graduate once you earn a certain amount of money. Essentially, it acts as an additional tax. If the loan is not cleared after 40 years, it is written off. The MoneySavingExpert founder, Martin Lewis, says that since only mid- to higher-earning people pay off the loan in full within the 40 years, they will be the ones who bear the cost of the tuition increases. And he says the changes are trivial compared with moves by the previous government, which reduced repayment thresholds as well as increasing the repayment period. The move to a longer repayment period means moving from a system where 27% of people repaid in full to one where 65% do, says Sarah Coles, the head of personal finance at the investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown.
