University Tuition Fees To Increase by RPIx Inflation Yearly from 2026

Education Secretray Bridget Phillipson has confirmed that university tuition fees in England.  Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales manage their own university fees under devolved government but Wales did follow suit to match England last year, so thay may do the same.  University fees are around 50% of that in England and have been confirmed as not increasing by more than inflation and university fees in Scotland are free, paid by the higher rates of income tax paid in Scotland.

Suprisingly, fees in England will not increase by Consumer Prices Index (CPI) but will increase by the higher Retail Prices Index excluding mortgage payments (RPIx), this is an ‘arithmetical’ mean of the average prices of a basket of household spending rather than the geometric mean for CPI.

Comment

Given increasess in Employers National Insurance Contributions to 15%, huge increasess in national minimum wages and caps on numbers of foreign, full fee paying students, universities were looking at c 10,000-12,000 redundancies, so this fee increase will no doubt be wellcome.

Using RPIx (currently 4.4% pa) rather than CPI (currently 3.8% pa) may seem cynical and yet another way for the government to ‘stealth’ tax us even more. 

Increases may also not be so welcome to students or parents.  Higher fees will also mean higher bills and longer pay off times for student loans, where taken.