Tuition fee caps for undergraduate students will increase in line with inflation for the next two academic years, the Education Secretary has confirmed.
In a statement to the House of Commons ahead of the release of the Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper, Bridget Phillipson said the Government will legislate when parliamentary time allows to increase tuition fee caps automatically in future linked to quality.
Maintenance loans will also increase in line with forecast inflation every academic year.
âWe will not allow institutions who donât take quality seriously to make their students pay more. Charging full fees will be conditional on high quality teaching, balancing stability for universities with fairness for students and for taxpayers,â Ms Phillipson said.
âSo within this white paper, is a challenge to our universities to build on what makes them great, to drive up access, to drive out low quality provision, to improve collaboration and to push forward innovation, to deliver the research breakthroughs that will revitalize our economy and to feed that energy back into our local communities.â
Domestic university fees were increased in line with inflation to ÂŁ9,535 starting from this academic year after being frozen since 2017. Maintenance loans were also increased in line with inflation.
The white paper also includes the announcement that new vocational qualifications called V levels will be introduced to sit alongside A and T Levels, replacing other qualifications.
The new vocational qualifications have been welcomed by several school and college leaders, but the Sixth Form Colleges Association said they will not feel the gap left by the range of applied general qualifications, which include BTECs.
The Government has also announced a new English and maths qualification targeted at students with lower attainment that will act as a stepping stone to better prepare them to resit their GCSEs in these subjects.
The current resit rule, which requires students who do not achieve a grade 4 in GCSE English and maths to resit post-16, is regularly criticised by sector leaders.
Ms Phillipson announced at Labour conference in September that maintenance grants would be reintroduced for students on courses deemed to support the industrial strategy, funded by a new levy on international students.
Initial reports when a levy was first proposed in the immigration white paper suggested it would be 6%.
Analysis by policy consultancy Public First suggested a 6% levy could lead to a loss of 77,000 international students in the first five years and a ÂŁ2.2 billion loss over that time in international fee income.
Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer announced in his conference speech the Government would replace the target for 50% to go to university with a target for two-thirds to be in higher education, further education or a gold standard apprenticeship by age 25.
In her statement on Monday, Ms Phillipson said: âTo compete in this changing world, we need to nurture a much broader range of talent. So as the Prime Minister has announced, we have a new ambition, no longer just half.â
The Government has also said it will invest nearly ÂŁ800 million from its spending review settlement into supporting 16 to 19-year-olds next year, and will open 14 new Technical Excellence Colleges.
She added she wants to see universities working with colleges to deliver more level four and five qualifications.
Ms Phillipson added that the Government will introduce a new guarantee for any 16 or 17-year-old not in education or training to automatically get a place at a local provider.
Universities across the UK are facing financial challenges, with many having announced redundancies or cost-cutting measures.
More than two in five forecast a deficit for 2024/25 in data released in May.
Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle told the PA news agency last month the universities sector âcannot recover to become what it looked like in the 2010s.
âIt has to recover in a way that is fit for the 2030s.â
