Leaks say Conservative Government is raising numbers to $10,000, The Guardian estimates the real number as $14,000!
from the Guardian UK (excerpted) Ministers have suffered a major blow to their tuition-fee reforms after the government’s access watchdog revealed that all universities intend to charge at least £6,000 a year.
The Office for Fair Access (Offa) announced that every one of the 123 universities and university colleges in England intend to charge £6,000 or more to full-time undergraduates from autumn 2012. A further 17 further-education colleges – out of 124 – want to charge fees of more than £6,000. Universities had until midnight on Tuesday to submit their plans to the watchdog.
..Research by the Guardian has revealed that almost three-quarters of English universities and university colleges intend to charge this amount for at least some of their courses.
The figures will come as an embarrassment to David Willetts, the universities minister, who predicted that universities would charge different levels of fees and that the average would be £7,500. He later revised that to £7,500-£8,000.
The Guardian’s figures show the average fee of those that have made their plans public currently stands at £8,629.73. Some 49 of the 73 universities intend to charge a flat rate of £9,000. Some 56 institutions intend to charge £9,000 for at least some of its courses……..
The Treasury is faced with a funding black hole because the initial cost of students‘ fees is borne by the government. It pays the fee for each student in the form of a loan. The government then recovers its money once a student has graduated and is earning more than £21,000.
Labour said on Tuesday that one way for the government to claw back the higher upfront cost would be to cut student numbers. Ed Miliband, the leader of the Labour party, warned that at least 10% of university places for undergraduates would have to be cut to fund the coalition’s “unravelling” tuition fee reforms.
This is the equivalent of removing 36,000 full-time places each year.
…..Some universities, such as Coventry, intend to charge variable fees based on the cost of delivering their courses. Coventry wants to charge £7,500 for classroom-based degrees; £7,900 for studio and field trip-based degrees; £8,300 for lab-based degrees and £9,000 for specialist degrees such as engineering, fashion and automotive and transport design.Meanwhile, it has emerged that overseas universities are redoubling their efforts to recruit English students to their universities…..Loftus said more British students than in the past were considering going abroad for university, in part because of higher fees. “Although the Australian dollar is strong, many British teenagers are enrolling on courses in Australia, Canada and New Zealand in particular.”
Aaron Porter, the NUS president, predicted that 10% of university applicants would be put off studying for a degree because of the higher fees.
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