The Government has raised the maximum cost of tuition fees for the first time in over seven years.
From the 2025/26 academic year, students will be charged £9,535 in tuition fees for a full-time course due to an inflation-matching 3.1% rise.
A part-time course will cost a maximum of £7,145, which is a £210 increase on its current level. Students who take an accelerated course – which is a degree taken in a shorter amount of time (often two years) – will be charged a maximum of £11,440 per year after a £340 hike.
As well as tuition fees rising, so will the maximum amount of the maintenance loan. The loan is designed to give students a boost to pay for books, accommodation and other living costs. The amount you can apply for is dependent on factors including your household income and whether you have children.
A student living away from home and outside of London can apply for £10,544 per year for the 2025/26 year, a rise of £317.
If you live at home, the maximum maintenance loan is £8,877 per year, and if you live away from home but in London, there will be a £414 annual rise to £13,762.
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A student who studies abroad for a UK-based course will see a £363 rise to £12,076 on what they can apply for.
The fees and new loan amounts will apply to new students and those who are continuing their studies. In a speech to Parliament, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said the rises have come to address “the severe financial challenges” that universities face.
Phillipson added: “With tuition fees frozen, universities have suffered real terms-decline in income.”
Tuition fees have been frozen at £9,250 since 2016 and there was no indication there would be a hike for students in Labour’s manifesto.
Instead, the party noted in its plan for Britain should it get elected that the current higher funding settlement “does not work for the taxpayer, universities, staff or students”.
It added: “We will work with universities to deliver for students and our economy.”
‘Huge real-terms cuts to maintenance funding’
Reacting to the increase, Tom Allingham, Save the Student’s student money expert, said: “An increase in tuition fees simply rubs salt into the wounds for students, and ignores the single biggest issue they currently face: huge real-terms cuts to maintenance funding.
“Although extra cash was needed to address successive freezes to fees, we had hoped this would be met by increasing the Government grant rather than adding to student debt. We’re even more disappointed that they’ve decided to do this without taking any significant action on student maintenance funding.
“It was rumoured that maintenance grants would be brought back to soften the psychological blow of a fee hike. But instead, all we got was a 3.1% increase to the maintenance loan – in line with inflation, but nowhere near enough to start eroding the huge real-terms cuts we’ve seen to funding in recent years.”
Allingham added: “In the meantime, despite our dismay at the increase in tuition fees, it is worth noting that this relatively modest uplift will make little difference to overall levels of student debt, and will have no impact whatsoever on the amount a graduate repays each month. This figure is only affected by your salary, and doesn’t vary depending on how much you owe.”
