University Tuition Fee Hike In England: How Will It Impact Indian Students?
England’s Secretary, Bridget Philipson, has announced that undergraduate university tuition fees will rise from next year, in consideration of the rise in inflation, and to maintain the quality of education in higher learning institutions. Along with the tuition fee, the maintenance loans will also increase yearly in line with inflation linked to university quality.
England possesses the world’s top universities, which draw millions of students from all across the world. The top universities based on QS World University Rankings 2025 and Times Higher Education (THE) rankings include – University of Cambridge, Oxford University, Imperial College of London, University College of London, London School of Economics, King’s College London, among others. The increase in fees will impact students who dream of coming to study at these prestigious institutions.
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Philipson said, “Last November, I announced that the tuition fee would increase to Euro 285 this academic year, and today I can confirm that we will increase undergraduate tuition fee caps for all higher education providers in line with forecast inflation for the next two academic years. And we will future-proof our maintenance loan offer by increasing maintenance loans in line with forecast inflation every academic year”.
“To provide long-term certainty over future funding, we will then legislate, when parliamentary time allows, to increase tuition fee caps automatically in the future, linked to quality. We will not allow institutions that do not take quality seriously to make their students pay more. Charging full fee will be conditional on high-quality teaching.”, the secretary added.
As per the England student reactions conducted by the BBC-UK on the fee hike, one student said that it is going to impact poor students more instead of middle-class students. Another student said that this might discourage students from going to university, as people think about debt.
One student said that the increase in loans also put more pressure on students as they will have to pay it back. However, one student said that if a degree is worth it, then there would not be any problem if the fee goes up.
England University Fee Hike: Impact on Indian students
As per the 2022-23 academic year data, nearly 1,73,000 students are enrolled in higher education institutes from India in the UK. Indian students comprise around 26% of all non-EU international students in the UK in 2022-23.
The fee increase will increase the absolute cost of study, so students will borrow more to cover their tuition. The increase in maintenance loans means students have access to more money to help with living costs.
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For students whose careers are slower to start and who earn less, the debt burden may be heavier, and the risk of graduating with large debt is greater. For Indian students, the impact could be more pronounced as they pay much higher fees.
However, as per the analysts, the link to inflation means the system is more predictable and fees and loans adjust rather than sudden big jumps. But there is a risk of compounding increase over time, which means future cohorts might face significantly higher fees if inflation remains up.
Also, monthly repayments for loans won’t change due to the fee hike means that for graduates, affordability of repayments remains roughly stable.
