WRITTEN STATEMENT

BY

THE WELSH GOVERNMENT

TITLE	Laying of the Higher Education (Fee Limits) (Wales) Regulations 2026
DATE	27 January 2026
BY	Vikki Howells MS, Minister for Further and Higher Education

I have today laid a draft of the Higher Education (Fee Limits) (Wales) Regulations 2026 (“the Fee Limits Regulations”). These will specify the maximum amount of fees that a ‘qualifying person’ undertaking a ‘qualifying course’ of higher education may be charged for the purposes of the Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Act 2022 (“the 2022 Act”).  I intend to specify qualifying persons and qualifying courses for this purpose in a further statutory instrument to be made next month.

The primary intention behind these statutory instruments is to ensure that tuition fee caps continue to apply from academic year 2027/28 onwards, following the full implementation of the 2022 Act and the repeal of the existing regulatory regime for higher education in Wales.

In November 2025 I wrote to members confirming my intention to increase tuition fee caps for academic year 2026/27, and I have recently made the Education (Student Finance) (Amounts) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Wales) Regulations 2026 to provide for this increase.  In that statement I also confirmed that the tuition fee caps for the 2027/28 academic year will be considered in the next Senedd term.

The Fee Limits Regulations make provision in relation to academic year 2027/28 to enable Medr to establish the register of tertiary education providers in Wales (as required by Part 2 of the 2022 Act) and to include a fee limit category for higher education providers.