Draft Higher Education (Fee Limits and Fee Limit Condition) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2026

What happened

On 18 March 2026, the House of Commons approved the Draft Higher Education (Fee Limits and Fee Limit Condition) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2026, a statutory instrument (a form of secondary legislation that does not require a full new Act of Parliament) raising the cap on university tuition fees in England. The result was announced as a deferred division -- a procedure used for less contentious business where MPs vote by filing through the lobbies at a set time rather than during live debate. The regulations passed by 277 votes to 99 (recorded as 98 Noes in the chamber announcement), with the government voting in favour.

Why it matters

The regulations increase the legal ceiling on the annual fees that English universities can charge home undergraduate students. Since fees were first introduced and then raised to £9,000 per year in 2012, the cap has been a central mechanism shaping how higher education is funded in England. Raising it means students starting or continuing degrees will graduate with larger total debts, since most finance their fees through government-backed student loans. It also affects the finances of universities directly -- institutions have argued that the existing cap, unadjusted for inflation over many years, has put significant pressure on budgets. The change applies to English universities and affects home students in England; it does not directly govern fees for international students, who already pay unregulated, much higher amounts.

The politics

The vote divided largely along government-versus-opposition lines, but with notable internal Labour dissent. Of the 276 Labour and Labour-Co-operative MPs who voted, 19 voted against the regulations -- a visible rebellion on a policy that sits uneasily with Labour's historic commitments on student finance and its opposition to the original introduction of higher fees under the Coalition government. Every Liberal Democrat who voted did so against, as did all voting Reform UK, DUP, Green and most Independent MPs. The Conservatives were largely absent rather than voting against, which significantly reduced the size of the opposition tally. The same day saw a related opposition-day motion on student loans defeated 266 to 88, underlining that Parliament was handling tuition fee politics on multiple fronts simultaneously.