UK student money statistics 2026
By Jamie Hartwell · Updated 2 October 2026
The key UK student money figures, from what students borrow to what graduates go on to earn, each linked to the official release it came from.
We keep this page because the numbers are scattered across a dozen government releases, and round-ups quoting figures two or three years old are easy to find. Two of them do most of the explaining: the average English student entering repayment in 2026 owed £47,730, and the average purpose-built London room overtook the maximum London maintenance loan in 2024/25. A lot of what's below is those two facts seen from different angles.
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The headline figures
- Average loan balance on entering repayment in 2026: £47,730, provisional (Student Loans Company).
- Outstanding English loan debt at the end of March 2026: £294.6 billion, up from £266.6 billion a year earlier.
- Maximum tuition fees in England rise to £9,790 for 2026/27.
- Median working-age graduate salary in 2024: £42,000.
- Enrolments fell to 2,904,425 in 2023/24, the first annual drop since 2014/15.
Tuition fees and loans
Universities in England can charge full-time undergraduates up to £9,535 a year in 2025/26. For 2026/27 the cap rises to £9,790, a 2.7% increase and the second rise after seven years frozen at £9,250. Students from Scotland studying in Scotland still pay no tuition fees, because the Student Awards Agency Scotland settles the bill for eligible undergraduates.
What you repay depends on your plan:
| Plan | Repay above | Rate above the threshold |
|---|---|---|
| Plan 1 | £26,900 | 9% |
| Plan 2 | £29,385 | 9% |
| Plan 4 | £33,795 | 9% |
| Plan 5 | £25,000 | 9% |
| Postgraduate Loan | £21,000 | 6% |
Plan 5 covers everyone who started an English course from 2023 and has the lowest threshold of the undergraduate plans. Plan 2 is the 2012 to 2023 generation, and Plan 4 is Scotland's. The Postgraduate Loan runs alongside whichever undergraduate plan you're on, at its own 6%.
The stock behind those thresholds is enormous. The average English student entering repayment in 2026 owed £47,730 on SLC's provisional figure, 9.9% less than the 2025 cohort; it is the first cohort to include Plan 5 borrowers. The whole outstanding higher education loan book stood at £294.6 billion at the end of March 2026, and borrowers repaid £5.3 billion in 2025-26.
Maintenance and living costs
The maximum maintenance loan for 2025/26 and 2026/27:
| Living situation | Max loan 2025/26 | Max loan 2026/27 |
|---|---|---|
| At home | £8,877 | £9,118 |
| Away from home, outside London | £10,544 | £10,830 |
| Away from home, in London | £13,762 | £14,135 |
| Year abroad | £12,076 | £12,403 |
Set rent against that table and the problem shows itself. The average purpose-built London room cost £13,595 a year in 2024/25, per HEPI and Unipol, which overtook that year's maximum London loan. The 2025/26 loan gets back above that average room by all of £167, until the next rent rise lands. However you cut it, the biggest maintenance loan in the country is now roughly the price of a room and nothing else, and everything that isn't rent has to come from somewhere the loan isn't. The ONS found the same pressure when it last surveyed student finances in early 2023: 58% of students with a loan said it didn't cover their living costs, and 92% said their cost of living had risen. We track the rent side of this in the rent versus maintenance loan tracker and the accommodation crisis piece.
Graduate pay
The Department for Education's graduate labour market statistics put the median working-age graduate salary in England at £42,000 in 2024. Postgraduates sat at £47,000, non-graduates at £30,500, and the graduate employment rate was 87.6%. If you're negotiating a first offer, the graduate money guide puts these figures to work.
How many students there are
UK higher education providers recorded 2,904,425 enrolments in 2023/24, the Higher Education Statistics Agency reported, down roughly 1% on the year and the first annual fall since 2014/15. New entrants numbered 1,318,685.
About these figures
Primary sources only: the Student Loans Company, the ONS, HESA, the Department for Education, gov.uk and HEPI, linked at the figure they support. When a source updates its numbers we re-verify and restamp. Fee, loan and maintenance figures move each academic year; the rest updates when fresh annual data lands.
Reading the release beats reading summaries of it. On 29 June I sat down with Student Finance England's newly published 2026/27 "how you're assessed and paid" guidance to pin down the payment mechanics for the new year. The Tuition Fee Loan schedule is spelled out to the percent there: 25% at the start of term one, 25% in term two, 50% in term three, paid straight to the university. The maintenance instalments aren't. The exact amounts appear nowhere public and only land on your entitlement letter, which is worth knowing before you plan September around a guess.
To cite this page: UniSorted, "UK student money statistics 2026", https://unisorted.co.uk/student-money/uk-student-money-statistics-2026/. If a figure looks off, or you're a journalist who wants the underlying release for a story, email hello@unisorted.co.uk or see our press page.
Jamie writes to people already at uni
When your loan comes in, and what's due before it does. House deposits are the usual one.
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