Tuition fees: what difference has £3,000 made?

Labour will reduce the cap on tuition fees to £6,000, leader Ed Miliband has announced today.

He said the current system is:

"causing rising debts for graduates and the taxpayer".

While the debt burden is thought to have increased for most graduates under the current cap introduced by the Coalition government in 2012, the lowest earning 30% of English resident graduates from full-time study are expected to repay less. That is according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS); the remaining 70% are expected to have to pay back more under the new system.

English-domiciled disadvantaged 18 year-olds are still applying and at an increasing rate each year. It's mature students that have seen the largest decline since 2010. When it comes to the cost to the taxpayer, it's still too soon to tell whether or not real savings have been made.

For a full analysis of the impact of the £9,000 cap, take a look at our in-depth briefing.

The IFS has published an analysis of Labour's funding plans.