Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the financial sustainability of the higher education funding model.

Higher education (HE) providers are independent from government and as such are responsible for making the financial decisions that support their long-term sustainability.

To support providers in stabilising their finances, the Office for Students (OfS) continues to dedicate significant resources to ensuring the sector's financial sustainability. We have appointed Professor Edward Peck as OfS Chair, and he will play a key role in strengthening this commitment while also expanding opportunities in HE.

Additionally, we have made the difficult decision to increase tuition fee limits by 3.1%, in line with inflation, from the 2025/26 academic year.

The government also provides funding through the Strategic Priorities Grant (SPG) on an annual basis to support teaching and students. This includes funding to support teaching of expensive-to-deliver subjects such as science and engineering, access and participation of students from under-represented groups, and world-leading specialist providers. The total SPG for the 2025/26 financial year will be £1,348 million in recurrent (programme) grant and £84 million for capital to support teaching and learning.

We aim to publish our plans for HE reform soon as part of the Post-16 Skills White Paper, and will work with the sector and the OfS to deliver the change that the country needs.