Higher Education: Finance
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of the number of higher education institutions that are forecast to have a deficit in the 2024-25 financial year on the economy.
Answered by Josh MacAlister
The Office for Students (OfS), the independent regulator of higher education (HE) in England, monitors the financial health of providers to ensure it has an up-to-date understanding of the sustainability of the sector. Its latest report, published in May 2025, highlighted a decline in financial performance across the sector in 2023/24, with 44% of institutions forecasting a deficit in 2024/25. HE providers are independent from government and as such must continue to make the necessary and appropriate financial decisions to ensure their long-term sustainability.
The department is committed to creating a secure future for our universities so that they can deliver for students, taxpayers, workers and the economy. To put the sector on a firmer financial footing, Professor Edward Peck has been appointed as substantive chair of the OfS to continue its focus on financial sustainability and increasing opportunities in HE. We also took the difficult decision to increase tuition fee limits by 3.1% in the 2025/26 academic year, in line with inflation.
We will continue to work closely with the OfS and other relevant parties to understand the sector’s changing financial landscape.
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