Tuition fee rise ‘morally wrong’ and only a ‘sticking plaster’ for universities

The Government’s decision to charge students more for university in England next year is “morally wrong” and the reforms are a “sticking plaster” on what is needed, education leaders have warned.

Tuition fees for domestic undergraduate students in England will rise to £9,535 per year after eight years of being frozen at a maximum of £9,250.

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson told MPs on Monday that the fee rise had “not been an easy decision” but it was necessary to “secure the future of higher education” amid financial challenges.

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 the number of international students.

Ms Phillipson announced that maintenance loans would also rise in line with inflation in the 2025/26 academic year to help students facing cost pressures.

The tuition fee and maintenance loan rates will apply to new students and those who are continuing their studies from 2025/26.

The Education Secretary also said the Government wants to look at whether the threshold for paying back tuition fees should rise in line with inflation but “we’re not making that change now” as she outlined plans for reforms to the sector.

Ms Phillipson appeared to indicate that she would like maintenance grants to be restored rather than increasing loans, which commentators have argued simply saddle students from lower-income backgrounds with more debt.

Asked whether she had been pushing for grants rather than increasing loans, she told Sky News: “I want to look across the board at the support that is required, absolutely.”

Pressed on the fact that she had not denied wanting to bring in grants, she said she was “not going to make promises I can’t deliver”.

The National Union of Students (NUS) said students were being asked to “foot the bill” to keep the lights and heating on in their universities and to prevent their courses from closing down amid the “crisis”.

Alex Stanley, vice president for higher education of the NUS, said: “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.”

Earlier this year the University and College Union (UCU) warned that universities faced “catastrophe” if they were not given an emergency rescue package by the Government.

Jo Grady, general secretary of the UCU, said the tuition fee rise was “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.”

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.

The 3.1% rise to tuition fees and maintenance loans is just for the 2025/26 academic year, and the DfE has said longer-term funding plans for the higher education sector will be set out in due course.

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: “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.”

The Education Secretary also announced that maximum tuition fees for classroom-based foundation years courses will be reduced to £5,760 from the 2025/26 academic year.

Conservative shadow education secretary Laura Trott said Labour had “declared war” on students and students will “suffer” at a time when they can least afford it.

She called the fee rise “a hike in the effective tax graduates have to pay”.

Nicola Ranger, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), said: “As student nurse numbers collapse in every English region, ministers decide to make a bad situation worse.

“Today’s announcement will discourage more people from joining the profession. That means fewer highly-skilled staff on wards and in communities.

“That is bad news for patient care and undermines the Government’s very own NHS reforms.”

But Vivienne Stern, chief executive of Universities UK (UUK), which represents 141 universities, said the Government’s decision was “the right thing to do”.

She said: “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.”

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.

Educational charity the Sutton Trust said the Government’s announcements on Monday “barely scratch the surface of what’s needed to reform student finance and widen opportunity”.

Carl Cullinane, director of research and policy at the trust, said: “While students will welcome any additional money in their pockets, a 3% increase in the maintenance loan will scarcely begin to restore levels which have fallen more than 11% in real terms since 2021.

“On top of this, raising tuition fees without also reintroducing maintenance grants will hurt students from the poorest households the most.”