Everything students can expect from the 2026 Autumn Budget

By Megan Mitchell, News Reporter

Chancellor of the Exchequer, John Healey, presented his 2026 Autumn Budget to Parliament on October 28. Here’s everything it included – and missed - for university students, broken down.

Placing the budget in the context of large government borrowing and geopolitical instability in the Middle East and Iran, energy prices, inflation, and government borrowing costs will increase.

Subsequently, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has projected higher underlying borrowing and ‘squeezed fiscal headroom’ - essentially, tighter government spending allowance. The budget will therefore be ‘built on fiscal discipline’.

What will happen to student loans?

For students and graduates on Plan 2 (those who started courses between 2012/13 and 2022/23), Rachel Reeves’ previous freezing of loan repayment thresholds will stay. From April 2027, the repayment threshold will rest at £29,385 until April 2030 - meaning more graduates will repay more as their wages rise.

Freezing the minimum income required to begin loan repayments - so that it does not rise alongside wages and the cost of living - acts as a ‘stealth tax’ or ‘fiscal drag’. This makes it appear that your take-home pay increases as wages rise with inflation.

But with the repayment threshold frozen, middle- and low-income graduates will find themselves repaying student loans even earlier.

Budget will see overseas tuition fees taxed to fund return of maintenance grants

The once axed grants for low income students will return from January 2027.

EpigramLenny Osler

For Plan 5 borrowers - those who started at university from 2023/24 onwards - graduates start repaying their student loan once they earn above £25,000 a year, paying 9% of their earnings above that threshold. From April 2027, those aged 21 or above, working full-time on the National Living Wage, will earn enough to start repaying their student loan.

No additional maintenance support for students was announced in the budget. Maintenance support across the UK has not kept pace with the rising cost of living in recent years – the household income threshold to receive maximum maintenance loan in England remains frozen, since 2008, at £25,000.

What does this mean for your job?

As far as wages are concerned, the National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and above and minimum wage for 18- to 20-year-olds will both increase by 3.9% - in line with the recommendations of the Low Pay Commission.

For students in work, that means an increase in hourly pay. But because both rates are rising at the same pace, the gap between the adult and the younger worker rates will remain at £1.94 per hour - only a marginal change.

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New Prime Minister Andy Burnham has recently announced that the price of a single bus journey will be capped at £2.00, an initiative that will be rolled out at the start of next year. Faith Moss explores its potential efficacy and the reasons why some people do not condone the new policy.

EpigramFaith Moss

What about international students?

International graduates from UK universities meeting new requirements around visa compliance and graduate outcomes can now remain in the country for two years after graduating. For graduates from foreign institutions, their maximum stay will remain 18 months.

Although extending the graduate route visa to two years will help some international students, a system where the length of your post-study visa depends on which university you attended could mean uncertainty for current and prospective international students.

Featured image: UKinUSA via Wikimedia Commons