On Monday 4 November, the Secretary of State for Education Bridget Phillipson announced that tuition fees in England would increase by 3.1% from £9,250 to £9,535 in academic year 2025/26 and there will be an increase in maintenance loans, in line with inflation.
Responding to this announcement, a spokesperson from Universities Scotland has said;
“England and Scotland have both experienced a decade long near freeze in funding undergraduate education for home students, creating funding models that are unsustainable.
“The UK Government’s announcement to uplift English tuition fees in line with inflation in 2025/26, while also increasing maintenance loans, will be welcomed by the sector in England as a step in the right direction. While Scotland’s current model is profoundly different, we are clear of the need for the Scottish Government to address our own funding challenge – which gets more acute every year.
“The fees of students from England who choose to study in Scotland are part of the funding mix for Scottish universities, but institutions cannot be reliant on a one-off inflationary change to fill the gap when public funding is under so much pressure. Without swift intervention from the Scottish Government, the announcement from the UK Government will increase the funding gulf between undergraduate education for Scottish students and their peers in England.”