The debate over student fees is not new, but for students in England the financial burden is growing heavier each year. While higher education is often presented as a gateway to opportunity, the reality for many is that it opens the door to debt, stress, and financial insecurity.
The Rising Cost of Being a Student
In the 2022–23 academic year, inflation outpaced increases in student maintenance loans, leaving students with less money to cover their living costs. Maintenance loan values rose by only 2.3%, while inflation peaked at 9.6%. This meant loans fell in real terms, forcing students to make difficult choices.
Interviews with students across England revealed a common story: cutting back on essentials, skipping meals, leaving the heating off, or working long hours in low-paid jobs while studying. More than half reported their loans did not cover living costs. Nearly two-thirds admitted relying more heavily on credit cards, overdrafts, or family support.
This is not just about financial hardship, it is about the erosion of the student experience itself. Students report poorer academic performance, declining health and wellbeing, and fewer opportunities to engage in extracurricular activities that build confidence and skills.
England vs the Rest of the UK
The unfairness is clearest when comparing across the UK.
- England: From 2025/26, tuition fees for home students are capped at £9,535 per year, the highest in the UK. Students receive loans for tuition and living costs but no general maintenance grants.
- Scotland: Eligible Scottish students studying in Scotland pay no tuition fees, with the Scottish Government covering these costs.
- Wales: Welsh students face the same tuition fee cap as England but receive far more generous maintenance support, with many students able to access non-repayable grants.
- Northern Ireland: Tuition fees are capped at £4,855 per year for students studying locally, less than half the English level.
Please ponder this point: – The system means that two students living just a few miles apart across a border could face completely different levels of debt for the same degree.
England vs the World
England’s tuition fees also stand out internationally.
| Country/Region | Typical Annual Fees (Home Students) | Notes |
| England | £9,535 (2025/26 cap) | Highest in UK; loans available, no grants |
| Scotland | £0 | Fees covered for Scottish students |
| Wales | £9,250–£9,535 | More generous maintenance grants |
| N. Ireland | £4,855 | Half the English level |
| Germany | £0 | Free tuition at public universities |
| France | £200–£600 | Low administrative charges only |
| Spain | £500–£1,500 | Regional variations |
| Australia | £4,000–£7,000 equivalent | Income-contingent loan system |
| Canada | £3,000–£5,000 equivalent | Provincial variation |
| United States | £7,000 (public) to £27,000+ (private) | Among the world’s highest |
England’s student fees are not only the highest in the UK, but among the highest globally. Most European countries offer free or low-cost tuition, while students in England face debts stretching decades into their working lives.
A Broken Promise
The story of tuition fees in England is one of broken promises. Grants in the 1960s and 70s gave way to modest upfront fees in the 1990s, which in turn became loans, then spiralled into today’s £9,000-plus annual burden. The Labour government’s 1998 introduction of tuition fees was presented as modest and manageable. The coalition government’s 2012 reforms locked in a model where universities were expected to survive on student fee income, while public funding was cut back.
The result is a two-tier system across the UK. Students in England graduate with the heaviest debt burden in Europe, while their peers in Scotland escape tuition fees altogether.
This is not only unfair, it undermines equality of opportunity, penalises students in England from working-class backgrounds, and pushes many into decades of repayment.
Why It Matters to Trade Union Members
For Trade Union members such as the WEU, the issue of student debt is not just about education, it has direct consequences for the workplace and collective bargaining. Graduates entering the workforce with tens of thousands of pounds in debt are less able to save for a pension, less confident in pushing for fair wages, and more vulnerable to insecure employment.
This creates an intergenerational divide: older workers entered the labour market without such burdens, while younger colleagues face decades of repayment on top of rising living costs and housing pressures. For the WEU, tackling the unfairness of student fees is therefore about fairness in education and it is about defending the long-term pay, security, and equality of the workforce.
Trade Unions have a long history of fighting for fair access to education. Today, members should be concerned that young people, our future workforce, are entering adult life under the shadow of debt, financial insecurity, and diminished wellbeing.
The model of higher education across England is becoming increasingly unsustainable, relying heavily on international student fees while domestic students struggle.
Stephen Morris, General Secretary of the Workers of England Union said, “The WEU believes education should be a right, not a privilege and that the current system must be challenged. The question is not just, whether students should contribute, it is whether England’s young people should bear a vastly heavier burden than their peers in the rest of the UK and much of the world.”
Next in this series: The impact of international students on universities, who really benefits and who pays the price?
(Office for National Statistics (2023), Cost of Living Insights: Students, House of Commons Library (2023), Tuition Fee Statistics, Department for Education (2024), Student Loan Statistics, DE Gayardon, A., & Brajkovic, L. (2019), Global Trends in Tuition Feel, OECD (2023), Education at a Glance, Universities UK (2022), Higher Education in Facts and Figures. and numerous media outlets)