Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of (a) the number of students who will not be charged the increased annual tuition fee due to their contracts preventing a change in fees once they have started their degree and (b) the total cost of this differential for universities.

Higher education providers are autonomous and responsible for setting their own fees under the fee cap.

In deciding whether or not to increase fees, providers will want to ensure that they can continue to deliver courses which are fit for purpose and help students achieve their ambitions. For continuing students, this will depend on providers’ individual contracts with students, and they will wish to make their own legal assessment of this.

The department plans to publish an assessment of impacts, including on equality, of the planned tuition fee and student finance changes shortly.