UK student money statistics 2026

By Jamie Hartwell · Updated 15 July 2026

Every figure on this page comes from an official source: the Student Loans Company, the Office for National Statistics, the Higher Education Statistics Agency, the Department for Education and gov.uk. Each number is dated, links to the source it came from, and was checked against that source the day this page was last reviewed. Anyone is welcome to quote it.

We built this because the numbers on UK student money are scattered across a dozen government releases, and too many round-ups repeat figures that are already two or three years stale. This is the current picture, with receipts.

Key statistics

The seven figures most people arrive looking for:

• The average English student who started repaying their loan in 2025 owed £53,010, according to the Student Loans Company.
• Outstanding higher education loan debt in England reached £266.6 billion by the end of March 2025.
• Maximum tuition fees in England rise to £9,790 for 2026/27.
• The maximum maintenance loan for 2025/26 is £13,762 for a student living away from home in London, and £10,544 for one living away from home elsewhere in the country.
• A median graduate earned £42,000 in 2024.
• UK higher education enrolments fell to 2,904,425 in 2023/24, the first annual drop since 2014/15, and the biggest single-year statistic on this page.
• A purpose-built room in London cost an average £13,595 a year in 2024/25, which is more than the maximum maintenance loan for London.

Tuition fees and student loans

The headline numbers that shape a UK degree, and how much of it is borrowed. Our fuller explainers sit in the tuition and maintenance loans guide and the repayment guide.

• Universities in England can charge full-time undergraduates up to £9,535 a year in tuition fees in 2025/26.
• For 2026/27 that cap rises to £9,790, an increase of 2.71%, the second annual rise after fees were frozen at £9,250 from 2017 to 2024.
• Students from Scotland studying in Scotland pay no tuition fees, because the Student Awards Agency Scotland settles the bill for eligible undergraduates.
• On Plan 5, the newest English cohort start repaying above £25,000.
• Plan 2 borrowers, who started courses between 2012 and 2023, repay above a threshold of £29,385.
• The Plan 1 threshold is £26,900.
• Scotland's Plan 4 threshold, the highest of the lot, is £33,795.
• A Postgraduate Loan is repaid once income passes £21,000.
• Graduates repay 9% of everything they earn above the threshold on Plans 1, 2, 4 and 5, and 6% on the Postgraduate Loan.
• The average English student who entered repayment in 2025 did so owing £53,010, the figure that anchors most debt headlines.
• Across the country, the outstanding higher education loan book stood at £266.6 billion at the end of March 2025.
• Borrowers repaid £5.0 billion through the tax system in 2024/25.
• By the end of April 2025 there were 7.5 million people with a higher education loan still on the books.

Maintenance and living costs

What students can borrow to live on, and what living actually costs. The gap between the two is the story of the last few years, which we track in our accommodation crisis piece and the rent versus maintenance loan tracker.

• For 2025/26 the maximum maintenance loan is £10,544 for a student living away from home outside London.
• In London it is £13,762.
• Living at home, the maximum is £8,877.
• A student spending the year studying abroad can borrow up to £12,076.
• The average purpose-built student room in London cost £13,595 a year in 2024/25, per the Higher Education Policy Institute and Unipol, which is more than the loan meant to cover it.
• When the Office for National Statistics last surveyed student finances in early 2023, 58% of those on a loan said it did not cover their living costs and 92% reported their cost of living had risen.

Graduate employment and pay

Where a degree lands people once they leave. If you are negotiating a first offer, our graduate money guide puts these figures to work.

• Working-age graduates in England had a median salary of £42,000 in 2024, per the Department for Education's graduate labour market statistics.
• Postgraduates earned a median £47,000.
• Non-graduates earned £30,500.
• The graduate employment rate was 87.6% in 2024.

Students by the numbers

How many students there are, and which way the trend is pointing.

• UK higher education providers recorded 2,904,425 student enrolments in 2023/24, down roughly 1% on the year and the first fall since 2014/15, the Higher Education Statistics Agency reported.
• New entrants to higher education numbered 1,318,685 that year.

About these figures

Here is how this page stays trustworthy, and how to reach us.

Sources

We use primary sources only: the government department, agency or research body that produced the number. That means the Student Loans Company, the Office for National Statistics, the Higher Education Statistics Agency, the Department for Education, gov.uk and the Higher Education Policy Institute. We do not lean on other blogs or aggregators, and we do not cite paywalled survey summaries.

How we check

I checked every figure here against its original Student Loans Company, Department for Education or gov.uk release before publishing, and the date it was last verified sits above the author box at the foot of this article. When a source updates its numbers we re-verify and restamp: fee, loan and maintenance figures each academic year, and the debt, salary and enrolment releases when fresh annual data lands.

Cite this page

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 want the underlying source for a story, email hello@unisorted.co.uk or see our press page.

Reviewed 15 Jul 2026 · Editorial standards

Written by

Jamie Hartwell

Jamie writes UniSorted's money coverage: student loans, budgeting, bank accounts, insurance, the lot. He spent most of first year living in his overdraft, so the budgeting guides all have a bit on what to do after you have already overspent, not just before. Based in Leeds. Reach him at jamie@unisorted.co.uk.