University tuition fees are set to rise for the first time in eight years, the government will announce later today.
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.
But Education secretary Bridget Phillipson will tell the Commons this afternoon that tuition fees will rise to £9,500 in October 2025 and £10,500 by 2029.
The announcement is likely to provoke a strong backlash, given that Keir Starmer pledged to abolish tuition fees when running to be Labour leader in 2020.
He later walked back the statement last year after claiming the country was now in a different financial situation, and said he was choosing to prioritise the NHS.
Professor Shitij Kapur, vice-chancellor of King’s College London (KCL), had previously suggested that universities in England needed between £12,000 and £13,000 per year in tuition fees to meet costs.
Home Office figures released last month showed there was a 16% drop in visa applications from overseas students – to whom universities can charge significantly higher tuition fees – between July and September.
Since January, international students in the UK have been banned from bringing dependants with them, apart from on some postgraduate research courses or courses with government-funded scholarships.
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