Students are already acutely aware of the cost of going to universitypublished at 19:02 BST

19:02 BST

Branwen Jeffreys
Education editor

It’s now clear tuition fees will go well over £10,000 a year in this parliament, but there is little evidence on recent experience that those fees will deter 18-year-olds from choosing university.

There are signs of other shifts though, including a growing number of "commuter students", who choose to live at home.

Although maintenance loans will also be linked to inflation, they have fallen far behind the real cost of living for a university student. In some cities, rent alone would account for most of the maximum loan of just over £12,000.

While living costs are the most immediate issue for parents and students, the increase in tuition fees will increase the total borrowing for students in England.

Already, graduates in England repay most of the cost of their university education once they are earning, far more than across the rest of the UK.

In Scotland, for example, where there is a limit on the number of university places, there are no tuition fees.

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Image source, Reuters

Earlier on, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson delivered a statement in the Commons, in which she announced several changes as part of a post-16 education and skills White Paper.

If you're just joining us, this is what she said:

• Undergraduate tuition fee caps are to rise for all higher education providers in line with inflation from 2026
• Maintenance loans will also increase with forecast inflation every academic year
• This increase will be in place for the next two academic years. The government will then bring forward legislation to ensure they rise automatically increases with inflation after those two years
• Charging full fees will be "conditional on high quality teaching" - meaning universities that fall below a certain quality won't be able to charge the maximum fees

• We also heard some more detail on the newly-announced V-level qualification, that will replace level 3 BTecs and other post-16 vocational qualifications
• Phillipson also announced new targeted maintenance loans for "students most in need" - these will be funded by a levy on international students fees

Nathan Standley
Education reporter

Image source, BBC / Hope Rhodes

Prof Ian Dunn, provost at Coventry University, says it's a "good thing" that tuition fees will be going up from next year.

But he says that "under no circumstances will this solve the problem".

That's because universities will soon be facing a new international student levy - a tax, in effect, on the fees paid by international students.

And for universities like Coventry, the cost of that is going to be higher than the increased income from fees next year, Prof Dunn says.

"From a university perspective, it adds a little income and will alleviate a little of the pressure," he says.

"But it will not in itself solve the financial situation universities are in right now."

For students, he says costs rising in line with inflation is "probably to be expected from an experience of life", but he is concerned some young people may be put off going to university by higher fees.

Katie and Toby are first year childhood youth and education studies students.

We asked them what an increase in tuition fees would mean for them.

“I don’t know how I’d pay for it - even though I literally have a full time job,” says Katie.

Katie has a tuition fee loan, and worries about how she will be able to pay it off in the future.

“It’s not going to happen, I know it’s not” she says. “I plan on being a teacher.”

“I don’t even think I’ll be able to pay it off ever.”

Katie says that her student loan debt feels daunting, and like it will “always follow me”.

A rise of a few hundred pounds would mean a lot to Katie, she says. “A hundred quid on my pay cheque is a lot of money to me,” she adds.

For Toby, the biggest problem to consider is that if uni fees rise, so will other costs.

“Housing, shopping - all of that will go up whilst you’re also trying to pay for increased tuition fee loan.”

He’s worried about students in a few years’ time being able to afford to go to university.

Toby himself feels “nervous at the thought of it, and being able to fund anything in the future - it will just be a nightmare seeing an increased fee coming off your pay cheque as you’re getting older.”

As a reminder, you do not have to start repaying your loan until you earn a certain amount of money after graduation.You generally repay 9% of the amount you earn above this threshold.

We can bring you another announcement from Bridget Phillipson during her statement to the Commons a little earlier.

She said the government was also introducing new targeted maintenance grants "for students most in need".

These will be funded by a "levy on international student fees", she sayid.

While Phillipson said that while international students make an "important contribution to our country... it's right" that the government seek a "contribution" through international students to "reinvest back into new targeted maintenance grants for domestic students".

• For context: International student fees are not capped by the government in the UK. This means they are set by universities, and can vary hugely depending on the course and university. It's not clear yet how this announced levy will change that

Image source, Getty Images

In the UK, most students pay tuition fees to move into higher education.

This is education that comes after primary and secondary school, and that leads to a qualification like a degree, a diploma or a certificate.

Tuition fees are currently charged by universities or colleges for a variety of courses:

• Undergraduate degrees (like Bachelor’s degrees)
• Postgraduate degrees (like Master’s degrees or Doctorates)
• Diploma of Higher Education (DipHE)
• Higher National Certificates (HNCs) and Higher Education Certificates (CertHE)
• Foundation degrees, though these have lower fees

The fees go towards the cost of key parts of a course like lectures and seminars, facilities or equipment, course administration costs, and student support services.

Students can apply for tuition fee loans to help cover the cost of these fees. These are paid directly to the course provider.

There are also grants and bursaries to cover fees available for some students.

They can vary depending on where you’re from and where you are studying in the UK.

Some more reaction now, this time from the University and College Union.

General secretary Jo Grady accuses Labour of having "doubled down on the disastrous tuition-fees funding model, which created the crisis the sector is currently facing".

“This White Paper presented a massive opportunity to properly invest in our great universities, which contribute £265bn to the economy.”

She says the union wants to see “proper public funding” for higher education, and a resolution to the current dispute over “low pay, vicious job cuts and poor working conditions, and the impact this has on students’ learning experience”.

We're peeling away from the Commons now to bring you some reaction to the announced increase to university tuition fees in England.

Universities UK, which represents 141 universities, says it offers “a much-needed reset for our university system”.

“It makes clear that universities are a huge national asset, rightly admired around the world. We need them to be in great shape if we want national renewal,” its chief, Vivienne Stern, says.

Raising fees in line with inflation will “help to halt the long-term erosion of universities’ financial sustainability, following a decade of fee freezes”, she adds.

Stern says this “opportunity to reset” is about focussing on what’s best for the country, and that it will allow universities to work more closely together, instead of “purely in competition with each other”.

Will you be affected by the rise in tuition fees, the newly-announced V-level qualification, or anything we've just heard from the education secretary?

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In short, yes - if you're in first or second year now, your fees will be going up next year.

And they'll rise again each year after that - once the government has legislated to make the increases happen automatically with inflation.

That inflation rate does fluctuate, so we don't yet know how much fees are going to rise by next year, but if it was based on the current rate, it would increase by roughly £400 to over £9,900 a year.

Image source, House of Commons

Responding for the Tories, shadow education secretary Laura Trott says there are "fundamental questions" to be posed on Phillipson's plans.

"Before the election, she promised that graduates will pay less under Labour," Trott reminds the Commons.

"It turns out they will pay more."

Phillipson says Labour is putting a real focus on education and restoring its esteem.

Universities where teaching falls below a certain quality will have a lower tuition fee cap, Bridget Phillipson says.

She says that "charging full fees will be conditional on high quality teaching".

This is a "challenge to our universities" to "drive out low quality provision", Phillipson says

• For context: The quality of higher education is currently assessed by the Office for Students' teaching excellence framework, where universities are rated gold, silver or bronze across different categories. The framework is currently under consultation and it's not clear when it will be replaced

Some more now on that announcement we've just heard from the education secretary.

Bridget Phillipson says that university tuition fees in England are going to start increasing every year in line with inflation.

This will apply from 2026 onwards for two years.

She says she intends to bring forward legislation to ensure that they will then increase automatically in line with inflation each year once those two years are up.

• How much will fees go up by? Universities in England can currently charge up to £9,535 per year - under current inflation, that would likely equate to a rise of just over £400
• What about the rest of the UK? These changes only affect England's university as education is devolved - Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland set their own policies

Image source, House of Commons

Bridget Phillipson announces that the government will "increase undergraduate tuition fee caps for all higher education providers, in line with forecast inflation for the next two academic years".

Maintenance loans will also be increased in line with forecast inflation every academic year, she says.

The government will then legislate, when parliamentary time allows, to increase tuition fee caps automatically in future, linked to quality.

We'll bring you more detail on this in just a moment - stay with us.

Having just started speaking, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson says that in a changing world "transformation is what we need".

There are "global forces" reshaping the world of work, she adds.

We risk leaving young behind, she says, and that under the previous government, colleges and technical educations were not prioritised.

She says this is why the government is publishing a post-16 education and skills White Paper.

Image source, House of Commons

Over to the Commons now, where Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has just taken her place at the dispatch box.

As we've been reporting, we're expecting her to make a statement on higher education in England.

We'll bring you the key lines here. Tap the watch live button at the top of this page to follow along.

Image source, PA Media

We're currently waiting for Bridget Phillipson to deliver an announcement in the Commons on universities in England.

In the meantime, here's a quick reminder of one of the government's key education targets.

During the Labour Party conference last month, the prime minister announced that he wants two-thirds of young people to go to university or study a technical qualification after leaving school.

He said Labour's old ambition to "get 50% of kids to uni" - a target set by Tony Blair in 1999 - was no longer "right for our times".

The new target also includes at least 10% of young people pursuing higher technical courses or apprenticeships by 2040 - nearly double the current level.

• You can read more about that here

What’s going on with university finances?published at 17:04 BST

17:04 BST

Hazel Shearing
Education correspondent

Vice chancellors will be on the edge of their seats to hear what Bridget Phillipson has to say.

In the summer, more than four in 10 universities in England were thought to be in a financial deficit.

Since then, we have seen more job losses across the sector – the University and College Union estimates there have been more than 12,000 job cuts in the past year – and even the merger of two universities in the name of shoring up finances.

Two big factors have been at play here:

• The first is that tuition fees for UK students were frozen for many years (the rise to £9,535 in 2025/26 was the first in England for eight years) and didn’t keep up with inflation
• The second is that, as a result, universities became increasingly reliant on the higher fees paid by international students to make up the financial shortfall

But the number of students coming to the UK from abroad has fallen in recent years, in part because of changes to visa rules last January.

The financial strain has left universities cutting courses as well as jobs. They will be hoping for a funding plan from the government to help turn the tide.

Hayley Clarke
Education reporter

Let's have a look at what the government has already announced today: V-levels, brand new vocational courses students will be able to do after their GCSEs.

V-levels will replace Level 3 BTecs and other post-16 vocational qualifications, which the government hopes will simplify the current system for students.

Announcing the plans earlier, the skills minister, Baroness Jacqui Smith, said the current landscape of over 900 courses was "confusing".

We're told that most V-levels will work like A-levels, meaning you can combine courses and study a range of subjects. Plus, students will be able to mix and match A-levels and V-levels if they want to.

What we don’t know is what subjects V-levels will be in, or when they will be rolled out.

The Sixth Form Colleges Association has also warned that V-levels may not fill the gap left by BTecs, and said the government’s priority should be making sure that schools and colleges can still enrol students on BTecs until the new V-levels are up and running.

• You can read more about the new qualifications here

Emily Atkinson
Live reporter

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson is due to deliver a statement to MPs on the government's strategy for universities and colleges in England shortly.

We're not yet sure what's going to be announced, but she's due in Parliament shortly (at which point all should become clear).

Meanwhile, earlier today, ministers announced plans to introduce new vocational courses called V-levels, to be rolled out for 16 year olds. More on this in just a moment.

We're keeping an eye on what's going on in the Commons - press watch live above to follow along.