Undergraduate tuition fees are set to rise in line with forecast inflation as early as next year, the Education Secretary has announced.
In a statement to the Commons, Bridget Phillipson said the rise will remain in place for the next two academic years from 2026.
Currently, unversities can charge a maximum yearly tuition fee of £9,535 for standard full-time courses, but the rise will see students fork out closer to £10,000-a-year.
Meanwhile, under-performing universities won’t be able to charge maximum fees as “charging full fees will be conditional on high quality teaching”, she said.
She told MPs: “Today I can confirm we will increase undergraduate tuition fee caps for all higher education providers, in line with forecast inflation for the next two academic years.
“And we will future proof our maintenance loan offer by increasing maintenance loans in line with forecast inflation every academic year.”
She added that down the line the government will legislate to increase tuition fee caps “automatically in the future linked to quality”, adding that charging full fees will be “conditional on high quality teaching”.
“We will not allow institutions who don’t take quality seriously to make their students pay more,” she said.
She said the move will drive out low quality provision, improve collaboration and “push forward innovation, to deliver the research break breakthroughs that will revitalise our economy, and to feed that energy back into our local communities”.
