The cap on tuition charges will rise to £9,535 a yr from 2025, schooling secretary Bridget Phillipson has introduced.
It’s the first time the costs have gone up in additional than seven years and comes amid warnings the college sector is going through a funding disaster.
The transfer, which kicks in subsequent April, can be welcomed by greater schooling bosses, however is more likely to spark anger amongst college students and their households.
It’s also embarrassing for Keir Starmer, who pledged to scrap tuition charges when he ran to be Labour chief in 2020.
Phillipson informed MPs “this isn’t a choice I take any pleasure in”, however insisted she had no alternative given the state of college funds left by the final Tory authorities.
She mentioned: “We’ll repair the foundations, we’ll safe the way forward for greater schooling in order that college students can profit from a world-class schooling for generations to come back.
“That’s the reason I’m asserting immediately that in keeping with the forecast set out within the Price range final week, from April 2025 we can be growing the utmost cap for tuition charges, in keeping with inflation, to £9,535, a rise of £285 per educational yr.”
She added: “Growing the price cap has not been a straightforward choice, however I wish to be crystal clear that this is not going to value graduates extra every month as they begin to repay their loans.
“Universities are liable for managing their very own funds and should act to stay sustainable. However members throughout this home will agree that it’s no use conserving tuition charges down for future college students if the schools aren’t there for them to attend.”
The secretary of state additionally introduced that upkeep loans for college kids will rise by round 3%, which is price an additional £414 a yr.
Shadow schooling secretary Laura Trott, who was solely appointed to her function this morning by new Tory chief Kemi Badenoch, mentioned: “Final week we had a Price range that declared warfare on enterprise, on non-public sector employees and farmers.
“It appears immediately that the secretary of state needs so as to add college students to that checklist. Not content material with placing up the price of residing for everybody with an inflationary Price range, and pushing down wages with a Nationwide Insurance coverage enhance, we are actually in a state of affairs the place college students will undergo from the primary inflationary enhance in plenty of years at a time when college students can least afford it.”
Inexperienced Occasion MP Ellie Chowns mentioned: “Tuition charges have compelled universities to prioritise revenue over schooling and put many prone to chapter, whereas college students face extortionate rates of interest – aside from these rich sufficient to not want a mortgage.
“They’ve been a catastrophe and must be scrapped, not elevated.”
