Tuition fees to rise with inflation, and Maintenance Loans won’t increase enough

The government has announced that tuition fees are set to increase each year, but it was the news on Maintenance Loans that really concerned us...

After months of speculation, the government has finally confirmed that tuition fees in England will rise in the 2026/27 academic year.

In fact, the Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, confirmed that they'll rise for the next two years in line with forecast inflation.

Following that, the government aims to continue with the policy – but universities will need to deliver high teaching standards if they want to charge the maximum amount.

Beyond the headlines, the government also confirmed what will happen to Maintenance Loans – and, unfortunately, it wasn't the best news.

What's happening to tuition fees?

The government has announced that tuition fees will increase each year in line with predicted rates of inflation:

• 2026/27 academic year – £9,790
• 2027/28 academic year – £10,050

Phillipson also said that in the future, they hope to automatically link these increases to the quality of teaching at a university. Universities that aren't judged to be offering "high quality teaching" won't be allowed to charge the maximum amount.

Initially, these changes were only announced in England, but they've since been confirmed for Wales too. They will affect both new and current students.

Like Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland also control their own tuition fee caps, and we're waiting to see what changes they'll make (if any).

Why are tuition fees increasing?

Credit: Ewan Munro - Flickr

Many universities across the country are facing their own financial difficulties.

Although tuition fees are at their highest ever levels, they haven't kept up with inflation since increasing to £9,000 per year in 2012. The hike to £9,535 at the start of 2025/26 was the first increase since 2017, which itself was the first time fees had risen since 2012.

As a result, more universities have been losing money, and there has been speculation that some have to close down altogether. People across the sector were in agreement that extra cash was needed from somewhere, with most senior figures calling for an increase to tuition fees.

But at Save the Student, we're opposed to tuition fees. We wanted the government to increase the grant funding given to unis, rather than adding to student debt.

Should you be worried about higher tuition fees?

While we oppose tuition fees, we also don't want students (especially prospective students) to panic about this news. There are a few reasons why the impact of this increase will be minimal – or maybe even non-existent for some students:

• Your tuition fees will still be covered up front and in full by a Tuition Fee Loan. This won't make any difference to how much money you have at university.
• The extra debt won't make any difference to your monthly Student Loan repayments. You only ever repay 9% of your earnings over a threshold, so it's only affected by your salary, not how much you owe.
• Many students won't end up repaying their Student Loans in full anyway. More people will repay in full than in the past (the newer repayment plan made it more likely), but there's still a significant proportion who won't pay off their original balance, let alone these extra fees.
• If you do end up repaying in full, it'll probably be because you've gone on to earn a high salary. With that in mind, you'll likely only be repaying for a couple of months longer than planned with these new fees.

As we always say: we don't want tuition fees in the UK, and we think there are big improvements that could be made to the Student Loan system.

However, as it stands, the repayments alone are still broadly manageable and shouldn't be a barrier to going to university.

Maintenance Grants are returning

Before we get to the Maintenance Loan updates, it's worth mentioning that the government also formally announced that grants are set to return in England.

The rest of the UK never abolished Maintenance Grants, but in England, new students from 2016 onwards were no longer eligible to receive them. We've always said this was a mistake, and finally they're set to return.

When are Maintenance Grants returning in England?

The government has confirmed that Maintenance Grants will be available from the start of the 2028/29 academic year.

Crucially, the grants won't just be offered to new students – anyone who's already studying at that point and meets the eligibility criteria will also receive the funding.

Who will be eligible for the grants?

Maintenance Grants in England will only be available to students with a household income of £25,000 per year or less, and who are studying on one of the select courses that align with "the government's missions and the industrial strategy".

The government hasn't published a definitive list of courses that will be eligible, so we can't say for sure which students will and won't get the funding.

As for the household income threshold, it's important to frame how much £25,000 per year will actually be worth by the 2028/29 academic year. By that point, a full-time employee earning the minimum wage will likely be earning more than £25,000 per year – so if you have even one parent in full-time work, you won't receive the full grant.

How big a Maintenance Grant will you receive?

Exactly how much you get will depend on your household income, and what year of uni you'll be in:

It's a start, but we'd like to see Maintenance Grants rolled out much more extensively than this.

Are Maintenance Loans going to increase?

Credit: Inside Creative House – Shutterstock

As with tuition fees, Maintenance Loans in England are set to increase in line with predicted rates of inflation.

That might sound ok at first, but in reality it's the exact same policy that's been in place for years now.

This approach has a serious flaw, and it was massively exposed at the peak of the cost of living crisis. In 'normal' times, inflation forecasts are broadly correct – in other words, if economists think inflation will be 2.5%, they're usually pretty close.

But as we saw from 2021–2023, these projections aren't always accurate. At its highest, inflation was well over 10% – yet as the projections had assumed it would be more like 2% or 3%, that's what Maintenance Loans increased by.

In simple terms, Maintenance Loans fell well short of rising prices, and the real value of funding  (the value once you take inflation into account) dropped massively.

In 2024/25, students from the poorest backgrounds received loans that were £1,906 smaller than they would have been had funding kept up with inflation. According to our National Student Money Survey 2025, loans now fall short of living costs by an average of £502 per month.

We've previously campaigned to change this, demanding the government increase funding above and beyond the rate of inflation to make up for the years where it fell dramatically short.

The government's decision to stick with the same failing system, with no significant increase in funding, is hugely disappointing. We'll continue to put pressure on them to change it.

Here's what our student money expert, Tom Allingham, had to say about the changes when they were announced:

These announcements on higher education are a mixed bag, but once again the tuition fee hike distracts from the real financial disaster facing students.

From a student’s perspective, fee increases will be felt more psychologically than financially. We’d have much preferred if the extra cash had come from increasing the government grant rather than adding to student debt, but even so, students should be aware that it will make little difference to their repayments.

Based on current estimates, the increase is likely to be around £400 per year, and a graduate who is close to repaying in full would likely clear this additional amount within a handful of months.

But despite the Education Secretary once again saying that Maintenance Grants will return, it would appear these will only be available to a small proportion of students. A welcome start, but far short of what we feel is needed.

Ultimately, the biggest disappointment was the news that Maintenance Loans will only increase in line with forecast inflation. This is a continuation of the flawed policy that led to funding falling far short of rising prices at the peak of the cost of living crisis, with these real-terms cuts now becoming baked into the system.

Our National Student Money Survey 2025 found that loans now fall short of living costs by an average of £502 every month. Without a substantial above-inflation increase to this funding, students will continue to face unprecedented levels of hardship.

We’re calling on the government to reconsider their decision, and implement a real-terms restoration of student funding to pre-cost-of-living-crisis levels.

For more info on fees and funding, check out our Student Finance guide.