The UK government has unveiled measures it hopes will support students and stabilise the university sector.
The price paid a year for a university course will rise to £9,535, an increase of £285.
Students will also receive an inflation-linked increase to maintenance loans – a 3.1% increase, which would provide £414 extra per year for those studying in London.
These changes take effect at the start of the 2025/26 academic year.
The education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, also announced that maximum tuition fees for classroom-based foundation years courses will be reduced to £5,760.
The National Union of Students celebrated the increase in maintenance loans, which it says comes as the result of years of campaigning by student activists.
However, the union have also pointed out that, as the maintenance loans are means-tested – without the introduction of grants this will contribute to an even higher burden of debt for the poorest students.
NUS Vice President Higher Education, Alex Stanley (pictured), said: “Higher education is in crisis right now. Students are being asked to foot the bill to literally keep the lights and heating on in their uni buildings and prevent their courses from closing down. This is – and can only ever be – a sticking plaster. Universities cannot continue to be funded by an ever-increasing burden of debt on students.
“We do welcome the increase in maintenance loans. This money will make a real difference to the poorest students, and is a testament to the hard work of student campaigners over the past three years: right now, students are left with 50p per week to live on after rent and bills.
“We do now need an urgent review and reform of the way that higher education and our students are funded.
“Clearly, the current system is not working. The last fourteen years of intense marketisation have systematically run down the UK’s universities. Students need a review that considers maintenance grants, international student fees and tackling the funding crisis that students and universities have been pushed into.”
