The Cost of the Degree
From freeto £47,730.
Within one working lifetime, a degree in England went from no tuition fee to a debt that averages £47,730 on the day graduates start repaying. Pick when you started, or would start, and see the deal that cohort got.
Figures checked 27 Sep 2026England · full-time undergraduatesSources
See it
Tuition fee cap, per year
Fees alone, three-year degree
Help with living costs
Understand it
The change came as a sequence of decisions. Fees of up to £1,000 arrived in 1998 as maintenance grants gave way to loans. The cap rose to £3,000 in 2006, then trebled to £9,000 in 2012. Maintenance grants for new students ended in 2016, so the poorest students borrowed the most. The cap then sat at £9,250 until 2025, when it rose to £9,535; it is £9,790 in 2026/27.
Each step was a choice, made across both main parties: Labour introduced fees and raised them, the Coalition trebled them, a Conservative government ended grants, and the current Labour government has raised the cap again while promising targeted grants for low-income students before the end of this Parliament. The same expansion that opened university to far more people moved the cost onto the students. A graduate today sits the same kind of degree as a graduate in 1995, for a very different bill. It changed by design.
The decisions, in order
- 1998Fees of up to £1,000; grants give way to loans.
- 2006Variable fees up to £3,000.
- 2012Cap trebles to £9,000.
- 2016Maintenance grants end for new students.
- 2023New loans charge RPI only, repaid over 40 years.
- 2025First rise in the cap since 2017.
Fix it
Charge no more than inflation
Loans for courses since August 2023 charge RPI only. Put Plan 2 borrowers, who started between 2012 and 2023, on the same footing, so their balances stop growing faster than prices.
The trade-off
A cost to the Exchequer. It mainly helps higher-earning graduates, who repay the most, and does nothing for people who never went.
Deliver the grants, at a level that covers living costs
Bring back non-repayable grants for students from the lowest-income homes, as promised, set high enough that the poorest do not graduate with the largest debts.
The trade-off
Direct spending up front, targeted by income to keep the cost contained.
Show what each course is worth
Put course-by-course earnings outcomes in front of every applicant, and fund the technical and vocational routes properly.
The trade-off
Better information only. It guides future choices and leaves existing balances as they are.
Sources and method
- Student Loans Company · Student loans in England, financial year 2025-26 (updated 2 July 2026): the average balance entering repayment was £47,730 for the 2025-26 cohort (provisional), down as the first Plan 5 cohort became liable to repay; £294.6bn of higher education loans outstanding.
- House of Commons Library · Tuition fees in England (CBP-10155, updated 8 July 2026): caps of up to £1,000 (1998), £3,000 (2006), £9,000 (2012), £9,250 (2017) and £9,535 (2025/26).
- Department for Education · Fee limits regulations 2026, impact assessment: £9,790 in 2026/27 and £10,050 in 2027/28.
- GOV.UK · Student loans interest rates announcement, 10 August 2026 and House of Commons Library · Student loans: interest rates and repayment thresholds FAQs (CBP-10654): Plan 5 charges RPI only (4.1%); Plan 2 interest is capped at 6% for 2026/27.
- GOV.UK · Targeted maintenance grants for students to be reintroduced (29 September 2025) and policy paper (26 November 2025): grants for students from the lowest-income households, before the end of this Parliament, funded by a levy on international student fees.
"Fees alone" is the cap for the year you started, times three. It leaves out fee rises during the course and all borrowing for living costs, so real balances are usually higher: the £47,730 average includes both. Before 2012 the caps rose with inflation between the changes shown in the chart. Plan names follow the Student Loans Company: Plan 1 for courses started before September 2012, Plan 2 from September 2012 to July 2023, Plan 5 from August 2023.