University fees to rise year-on-year in England from 2026

Rami Labib, a higher education specialist at Pinsent Masons, was commenting following the announcement by education secretary Bridget Phillipson on Monday, which confirmed that tuition fees will rise in line with forecast inflation for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 academic years.

Her statement, also given to MPs, confirmed that the government also plans to introduce legislation to ensure tuition fee increases happen automatically after the 2026-27 and 2027-28 academic years in line with inflation.

The changes were announced in parliament as the government published its post-16 education and skills white paper (72-page / 751KB PDF), which sets out ambitious plans to “build a world-leading skills system” through delivering world-class teaching and high-quality training to bridge skills gaps in the economy and end long-term unemployment among young people.

The white paper references that fee increases for 2028-29 onwards will be conditional on institutions meeting a “higher quality threshold” set by the Office for Students (OfS), but further details on the threshold and how it will be regulated are unclear.

Tuition fees in England are currently £9,535, having increased from £9,250 last year for the first time since 2017. It is not altogether clear which inflation measure the government will use and how much this will increase, but based on current inflations rates it’s expected that students could pay as much as £9,900 in 2026-27. The increase will only apply to universities and institutions in England, as education is a devolved issue in the UK.

Labib said the increases will help improve the higher education sector’s financial stability. “Following years of tuition fee freezes, these increases will be warmly welcomed by the sector, which as we know continues to face cost pressures, but institutions will need to ensure they reserve the right to charge these increased tuition fees in their student contracts.”

Andrew Church, a consumer law and higher education specialist at Pinsent Masons, highlighted the implications of the tuition fee increase as against institutions’ obligations under consumer law and the CMA guidance to the HE sector. He said: “The CMA’s guidance suggests that a tuition fee variation clause is more likely to be fair if it references an objective verifiable inflation index, and any fee increase is capped, to provide students with a degree of cost certainty.”

The white paper doesn’t reference which inflation index the government will use when setting future tuition fee increases and the government has stated that any increases will be in line with inflation. Institutions therefore won’t be able to include reference to an inflation index, or a cap on any fee increase in their student contracts.

As a result, Church said institutions that include the right to increase tuition fees in line with the tuition fee cap set by the government will not be providing “cost certainty” to their students and will technically be operating in contravention of the CMA’s guidance and consumer law. However, he cautioned that “this may be a risk the sector is willing to take against the backdrop of increased financial pressure and with the comfort that they are adopting a contractual position validated by government.”

The increase in fees comes as the OfS’ latest financial sustainability report forecasts that 43% of higher education institutions will be in deficit for a third consecutive year without further action. The OfS attributed the deterioration to lower than anticipated levels of recruitment of international students, an issue which is expected to be exacerbated following the government’s recent moves to increase higher financial requirements for foreign nationals studying in the UK and to reduce the periods international students are permitted to stay after graduation.

The government says it also plans to simplify the regulatory system for higher education in England to reduce red tape for institutions and enable colleges and universities to collaborate better to allow students to move between providers more easily to continue their studies.