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The Westminster government has announced plans to automatically raise university tuition fees with inflation, but said future increases will be linked to the quality of teaching.

In a long-awaited White Paper covering the skills sector for people aged 16 and over, the government?committed to?immediate plans to put up?fees for the next two academic years.

Further legislation will increase tuition fee caps automatically for future academic years to ¡°balance the need to give the sector stability with fairness to students and taxpayers¡±.

These future fee uplifts will be conditional on higher education providers achieving a ¡°higher quality threshold through the Office for Students¡¯ quality regime¡±.

¡°This will protect taxpayers¡¯ investment in higher education and reward providers for high quality,¡± says the White Paper.

In November, education secretary Bridget Phillipson announced that fees would increase with the retail price index of inflation to ?9,535, but universities had warned that this would not be enough to fix financial problems faced by much of the sector.?Another rise of a similar amount would take annual fees close to ?9,900.?

Recent analysis found that the real-terms value of undergraduate tuition fees has fallen by a third from 2012, when ?9,000 tuition fees were introduced.

Speaking in?the House of Commons, Phillipson said the government ¡°will not allow institutions who don¡¯t take quality seriously to make their students pay more¡±.

¡°Charging full fees will be conditional on high-quality teaching, balancing stability for universities with fairness for students and for taxpayers.

¡°Within this White Paper is a challenge to our universities to build on what makes them great, to drive up access, to drive out low-quality provision, to improve collaboration and to push forward innovation, to deliver the research breakthroughs that will revitalise our economy and to feed that energy back into our local communities.¡±

The proposals are part of a wider overhaul of the education?system for people?aged 16 and above. The government is also rolling out new V-level qualifications for students after their GCSEs to simplify a ¡°confusing landscape¡± of qualifications in England.

It comes after prime minister Keir Starmer set a new target for two-thirds of young people to enter higher education or take a gold-standard apprenticeship during his speech at the Labour conference?in September.

Phillipson said the government planned to bring colleges ¡°out of the shadow of the university route¡± in what will be a ¡°defining cause for this Labour government¡±.

But she added: ¡°Pro-technical, pro-vocational doesn¡¯t mean being anti-academic. Our universities are a stamp of quality recognised across the world, a source of immense national pride, a driver of economic strength in our regions.¡±

Vivienne Stern, chief executive of Universities UK, said the White Paper offered a ¡°much-needed reset¡± of the university system?¨C making clear that universities are a huge national asset and recognising the financial challenges on the sector.

¡°The decision to raise undergraduate fees in line with inflation in England will help to halt the long-term erosion of universities¡¯ financial sustainability, following a decade of fee freezes.¡±

Stern also said the proposals around improving skills will help universities to ¡°turbocharge growth and opportunity¡±.

¡°Universities are up for this change,¡± she added. ¡°They want to work more closely, instead of purely in competition with one another. Higher and further education, with government, can build a more collaborative and sustainable future with universities at the heart of national renewal.¡±

Tim Bradshaw, chief executive of the Russell Group, welcomed the White Paper as an ¡°important milestone¡± for the sector. He said the linking of tuition fees to inflation was a good ¡°first step¡± in tackling the sector¡¯s urgent financial challenges.

However, he urged the government to rethink the proposed international tuition fee levy, which he warned will ¡°seriously hamper universities¡¯ ability to invest in students and communities¡±.

In the White Paper, the government says a growing number of providers have become too reliant on income from international student fees. Though it wants to maintain a ¡°welcoming environment for high-quality international students¡±, it urged providers to ensure that recruitment practices are sustainable, attract high-quality students, and that they are ¡°not materially at risk from volatile overseas markets¡±.

It says further details on maintenance grants and the international student levy will be set out in the Autumn Budget.

Jo Grady, University and College Union (UCU) general secretary, said the reforms were a missed opportunity and criticised the government for ¡°failing to get a grip on the crisis¡±.

¡°Labour has instead doubled down on the disastrous tuition-fees funding model, which created the crisis the sector is currently facing.

¡°If it is serious about improving teaching quality it should help resolve the current dispute over low pay, vicious job cuts and the poor working conditions, and the impact this has on students¡¯ learning experience.¡±

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com