England’s higher education fee-limit framework now has a defined commencement timetable. The Lifelong Learning (Higher Education Fee Limits) Act 2023 (Commencement and Saving Provision) Regulations 2026, made on 11 May 2026 and published on legislation.gov.uk as S.I. 2026/497, bring the remaining provisions of the 2023 Act into force and set out how existing courses are protected during the transition. The explanatory note states that section 3 of the 2023 Act was already in force on Royal Assent. This instrument therefore completes commencement of the Act, while separating the start of regulation-making powers from the wider substantive start date.
The first operative date is 12 May 2026. Regulation 2 provides that sections 1 and 2 of the 2023 Act come into force on the day after the Regulations were made, but only for the purpose of making regulations under the Higher Education and Research Act 2017. That limited commencement is significant because sections 1 and 2 amend the 2017 Act, including sections 10, 11, 31, 85(1) and 119(2), and Schedule 2. In practical terms, the Department for Education can now make the secondary legislation needed to run the revised fee-limit scheme before the broader legal change takes effect.
For all other purposes, the substantive commencement date remains 1 September 2026. Until that date, the amendments made by sections 1 and 2 are not in general operation, even though regulation-making powers can be used from 12 May 2026. The structure creates a clear lead-in period between the opening of regulation-making powers and the broader start of the amended fee-limit framework. For policy teams and providers, that means the legal basis for detailed regulations is available now, but the main commencement point is still tied to the start of the 2026 autumn term.
The second key date is 1 January 2027. Regulation 3 contains a saving provision stating that, despite commencement, the Higher Education and Research Act 2017 continues to have effect in relation to higher education courses beginning before that date as if the amendments made by sections 1 and 2 of the 2023 Act had not been made. The immediate policy effect is that course start date is the decisive trigger for transition. A course beginning before 1 January 2027 remains under the pre-amendment position, even though the amended statutory framework will already have come into force generally from 1 September 2026.
The instrument also fixes the meaning of ‘higher education course’ for the saving provision by referring back to section 83(1) of the 2017 Act as it stood immediately before amendment by section 16 of the Skills and Post-16 Education Act 2022. This is technical drafting, but it matters because it prevents the scope of the saving from shifting as a result of separate commencement changes elsewhere in the statute book. The explanatory note adds that section 16 of the 2022 Act has itself been commenced by S.I. 2026/498 for the purpose only of making regulations under the 2017 Act, and will come into force for all remaining purposes on 1 September 2026. Read together, the two commencement instruments are designed to keep the transitional boundary legally stable.
For universities, colleges and other affected providers in England, the Regulations do not themselves set new fee amounts. Their function is narrower but still operationally important: they determine when the amended statutory powers can be used, when the new framework starts generally, and which cohorts remain under the previous regime. That leaves providers with three dates to track in implementation planning. The first is 12 May 2026 for regulation-making, the second is 1 September 2026 for general commencement, and the third is 1 January 2027 for deciding whether a course continues to fall under the old rules.
What follows now is a secondary legislation phase. Because regulation-making powers are already live, attention will shift to the detailed rules made under the amended 2017 Act and to how those rules interact with recruitment cycles, fee-setting and student information for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 entry points. As drafted, S.I. 2026/497 is a timing and transition instrument rather than a policy reset in itself. Its practical value lies in giving the sector a clear commencement sequence and in preserving continuity for courses already entering the system before the 1 January 2027 threshold.