Higher Education: Finance

The Office for Students (OfS), as the independent regulator of higher education (HE) in England, is responsible for monitoring the sector’s financial sustainability. Its most recent report on the sector’s financial health, published in May 2026, is available at: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/publications/financial-sustainability-of-higher-education-providers-in-england-2026/.

The OfS report found that 42.7% of HE providers are forecast to be in deficit in 2025/26. However, these deficits alone do not provide a complete picture of an institution’s financial health.

The department does not hold information on universities categorised by county, but key information on the financial position of individual providers is publicly available through their published financial statements.

Universities are autonomous and are responsible for their own business and staffing decisions. While the government does not intervene in these matters, we expect universities to engage constructively with their workforce when making decisions that may affect them.

The government remains committed to creating a secure future for our universities so they can deliver for students, taxpayers, workers and the economy. That is why, after being frozen for eight years, we increased tuition fee caps in line with inflation in 2025/26. We are also increasing tuition fee caps in line with forecast inflation in 2026/27 and 2027/28. We will then legislate, when parliamentary time allows, to increase tuition fee caps automatically for future academic years.