The Education (Student Fees, Awards and Support) (Amendment) Regulations 2025: impact assessment – RPC opinion (green-rated)
Regulatory Policy Committee opinion on The Department for Education's impact assessment (IA) in respect of the regulations
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The regulations make amendments to legislation governing funding for further education students and higher education undergraduate and postgraduate students in England for the 2025/26 academic year. They primarily concern changes to maximum fee loans for undergraduate students and changes to maximum loans and grants for living and other costs for undergraduate students and postgraduate students.
The IA provides sufficient evidence and analysis to support the rationale for intervention and considers a wide range of options. The IA provides a good quantification of the impact of the preferred option on business, individuals and the Exchequer. The Department justifies the preferred way forward sufficiently, although the comparative assessment would benefit from illustrative monetisation of alternative options.
The IA estimates that the new lower fee limit will decrease UK tuition fee income for higher education providers by between £152 million and £236 million. There is a smaller saving to individuals as not all student loans would otherwise be repaid fully, and the IA estimates a cost to households of between -£108 million and -£168 million; these savings being a transfer from providers to students. The remaining savings are to the Exchequer in not having to cover loans that would otherwise not have been repaid fully, and other reduced subsidy costs.