{"id":11326,"date":"2026-01-27T15:14:53","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T15:14:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sbwm.uk\/?p=11326"},"modified":"2026-01-27T15:14:54","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T15:14:54","slug":"tuition-fees-head-to-10000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sbwm.uk\/v3\/news\/tuition-fees-head-to-10000\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuition fees head to \u00a310,000"},"content":{"rendered":"<!-- wp:themify-builder\/canvas \/-->\n\n<p><b>A Government announcement has set tuition fees in England on a rising path once more.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>In October, the UK Government announced a range of changes for post-16 education. What grabbed headlines were details of the proposed new \u2018V Levels\u2019, which will be \u201cnew vocational qualifications tied to rigorous and real-world job standard\u201d. V Levels will form part of a new educational goal for two-thirds of young people to participate in higher-level learning \u2013 academic, technical, or apprenticeships \u2013 by age 25.<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Education (DfE) press release included further news, which gained less coverage:<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>University tuition fees in England will rise in line with forecast (unspecified) inflation for the next two academic years.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Thereafter, subject to the introduction of new legislation, future years will see automatic increases in line with inflation.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As the graph above shows, even if the assumed and actual inflation is 2%, then by the 2028\/29 academic year, English tuition fees will have crossed the \u00a310,000 threshold \u2013 ten times their 1998\/99 starting level.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Tuition fees are a different matter in other parts of the UK \u2013 in Scotland, for example, there are no fees for Scottish students attending Scottish universities. However, what England decides on fees plays a major role, both in terms of setting the tone and the level of tuition fees paid by students in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, if they choose a university outside their home country.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The announcement of the new tuition fee escalator comes two years after a major change to the way student loans operate for new undergraduates in England; those who started their course before 2023\/24 were unaffected. The latest loan rules \u2013 known as Plan 5 \u2013 have three important features:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Repayment is at the rate of 9% of income over \u00a325,000 (frozen until at least 2027), starting in the April after leaving university.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Interest is charged at the rate of the Retail Price Index (RPI) inflation in March of each year (3.2% for 2025).<\/li>\n<li>Any loan outstanding at the end of 40 years (or on death) is automatically written off.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Those terms apply to all student loans \u2013 both maintenance and tuition fees \u2013 so could cover \u00a360,000 of debt for a new graduate. However, before you consider paying up front for your child\u2019s (or grandchild\u2019s) higher education, do take financial advice, as it may not be the most sensible option.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Government announcement has set tuition fees in England on a rising path once more. In October, the UK Government announced a range of changes for post-16 education. What grabbed headlines were details of the proposed new \u2018V Levels\u2019, which will be \u201cnew vocational qualifications tied to rigorous and real-world job standard\u201d. V Levels will [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11327,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":160,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbwm.uk\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbwm.uk\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbwm.uk\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbwm.uk\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbwm.uk\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sbwm.uk\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbwm.uk\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbwm.uk\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbwm.uk\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbwm.uk\/v3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}