HE England home fees: Change for courses starting from January 2027
October 01, 2026
England’s Department for Education is making small adjustments to the regulations that determine who can insist on paying ‘home’ fees for higher education courses in England. The adjustments will only affect courses that start from January 2027 onwards. Students who start courses before January 2027 will not be affected by the adjustments at all.
The adjustments will slightly alter the dates that are used to test certain requirements. It will take UKCISA some time to analyse the changes, as the technical details are complicated. The materials on the UKCISA website that explain the requirements a student needs to meet to fit each of the ‘home’ fee-paying categories will be updated in December 2026. We thank you for your patience while we analyse the changes.
Until then, UKCISA has placed a banner on all of our materials about fee status for higher education in England, saying “IMPORTANT: The dates used for testing some of the requirements mentioned in this information will alter slightly for courses starting on or after 1 January 2027. Come back to this page in January 2027 to see the revised version.”
Institutions will want to make sure they do not make firm decisions about fee status for courses starting from January 2027 onwards until they understand the adjusted dates.
However, it is important to note that most students who can see that they qualify when tested against the current requirements, will also find that they qualify when tested against the adjusted dates (if they are starting a course on or after 1 January 2027). If you want to see the regulations that make the adjustments, they are the Lifelong Learning (Student Support) (Amendment of Fees and Awards etc.) Regulations 2026 (S.I. 2026 No.858).
