Tuition fee caps for undergraduate students will increase in line with inflation for the next two academic years, the Education Secretary has said.
In a statement to the House of Commons ahead of the release of the Post-16 Education and Skills white paper, Bridget Phillipson said the Government will legislate when parliamentary time allows to increase tuition fee caps automatically in future linked to quality.
Maintenance loans will also increase in line with forecast inflation every academic year.
“We will not allow institutions who don’t take quality seriously to make their students pay more.
“Charging full fees will be conditional on high quality teaching, balancing stability for universities with fairness for students and for taxpayers,” Ms Phillipson said.
“So within this white paper is a challenge to our universities to build on what makes them great, to drive up access, to drive out low-quality provision, to improve collaboration and to push forward innovation, to deliver the research breakthroughs that will revitalise our economy and to feed that energy back into our local communities.”
Future fee uplifts will be conditional on higher education providers achieving a quality threshold set by regulator the Office for Students (OfS). The Government will also legislate in future so the OfS can impose recruitment limits where growing risks poor quality teaching.
Domestic university fees were increased in line with inflation to £9,535 starting from this academic year after being frozen since 2017.
Universities across the UK are facing financial challenges, with many having announced redundancies or cost-cutting measures.
The Government expects to see more collaboration and formal collaboration in the sector, it said in the white paper published on Monday.
The Government will also consult on the inclusion of break points in degrees “to create a more flexible learning offer”, and a new taskforce will tackle regional university “cold spots”.
The white paper also includes the announcement that new vocational qualifications called V levels will be introduced to sit alongside A and T-levels, replacing other qualifications.
The new vocational qualifications have been welcomed by several school and college leaders, but the Sixth Form Colleges Association said they will not fill the gap left by the range of applied general qualifications, which include BTECs.
The Prime Minister’s target will get two thirds of young people into university, higher skills or gold-standard apprenticeships.
— Bridget Phillipson (@bphillipsonMP) October 20, 2025
Today’s about how we get there: a renewed system.
V Levels, a standards revolution, cutting-edge TECs, world-leading universities: pathways for all.
The Government has also announced a new English and maths level 1 qualification targeted at students with a grade 2 or below in GCSE, to prepare them before they resit their GCSE exam.
The current resit rule, which requires students who do not achieve a grade 4 in GCSE English and maths to resit post-16, is regularly criticised by sector leaders.
The education secretary also said she wants to see universities working with colleges to deliver more level four and five qualifications.
Ms Phillipson added that the Government will introduce a new guarantee for any 16 or 17-year-old without a post-16 study plan to be automatically allocated a place at a local college or further education provider.
Also for young people at risk of becoming Neet (not in education, employment, or training), the DfE said it will offer a guaranteed job to young people on universal credit who are unemployed for more than 18 months.
The Government will also deliver at least two weeks of work experience for all students during secondary school, the white paper says, with an ambition this could be broken down into at least one week experience in years 7 to 9, and then another week in years 10 to 11.
Ms Phillipson announced at Labour conference in September that maintenance grants would be reintroduced for students on courses deemed to support the industrial strategy, funded by a new levy on international students.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced in his conference speech the Government would replace the target for 50% to go to university with a target for two-thirds to be in higher education, further education or a gold standard apprenticeship by the age of 25.
In her statement on Monday, Ms Phillipson said: “To compete in this changing world, we need to nurture a much broader range of talent. So as the Prime Minister has announced, we have a new ambition, no longer just half.”
The Government has also said it will invest nearly £800 million from its spending review settlement in supporting 16 to 19-year-olds next year, and will open 14 new technical excellence colleges.
Chief executive of the Russell Group Dr Tim Bradshaw welcomed tuition fee increases being linked to inflation, but said the Government should rethink its proposed international student levy.
