Funding announcement welcomed by Vice-Chancellor

The UK Government has announced the university undergraduate tuition fee cap in England will rise to £9,535 for the 2025/26 academic year.

Fees, capped at £9,250 since 2017, will be allowed to rise in autumn 2025 by around 3.1% to £9,535 to match the Retail Price Index.

Student maintenance loans will also rise in by 3.1% in England next year, providing students with around £414 more for living costs.

Announcing the changes, Education Secretary Bridget Philipson said the Government would publish longer-term proposals for universities in the coming months, to address ‘severe financial challenges’ in higher education and push universities to drive local economic growth.

Our response

There is still considerable detail behind the policy announcement to work through, but we will confirm to our existing students that their fees will not rise for the duration of their degree.

Responding to the Government’s announcement, Vice-Chancellor Robert Van de Noort said: “While this is a welcome announcement, allowing fees to rise with inflation will only stop their real-terms value declining any further than they have already.

“It may help to prevent things getting progressively worse, but does not entirely alleviate the severe financial pressures facing the sector, which increased this month with the increases to National Insurance employer contributions.

"It is good to see that the government wants to provide some clearer direction for long term university funding. The modest increase in funding for students, and universities, is welcome after eight years in which everyone's costs have rocketed, but income has been frozen.

"It is important that future students are not put off going to university by the idea that fees are going to rise. The up-front tuition costs for a UK student are still zero, and only graduates with higher wages have to pay their loan back.”

Watch the most recent all-staff financial update, and the session outlining the recent Universities UK blueprint report, for more information on the financial pressures facing Reading and other universities, including the declining value of tuition fees.