University fees could hit £9,000 a year

3 Nov 10
Student tuition fees will be capped at £6,000 a year unless universities use a special provision to charge up to £9,000, universities and science minister David Willetts has confirmed today.
By Mark Smulian

3 November 2010

Student tuition fees will be capped at £6,000 a year unless universities use a special provision to charge up to £9,000, universities and science minister David Willetts has confirmed today.

The £9,000 limit can be used only if a university can demonstrate that it will use some of the additional money to widen access for lower-income students. The Office for Fair Access will be able to withdraw the right to charge more than £6,000 from those that fail to meet such commitments.

Students will be lent the money for tuition cost by the government with no upfront costs. This will also apply to part-time students.

Those from families with incomes of up to £25,000 will be entitled to a student maintenance grant of up to £3,250 and those with incomes up to £42,000 will be entitled to a partial grant.

Maintenance loans will also be increased up to a maximum of £5,500 for families with incomes between £42,000 and £60,000.

A new £150m National Scholarships Programme will be targeted at bright students from poor backgrounds.

Students will start to pay back their loans once they earn more than £21,000 a year. All debts will be written off after 30 years.

Willetts said: ‘The current system of funding for universities is unsustainable and in need of reform. This progressive package will put universities' finance on a sustainable footing with extra freedoms and less bureaucracy.’

Sally Hunt, general secretary of the Universities and College Union, said: ‘The coalition is introducing a learning tax that will saddle the next generation of professionals with years of lost revenue.

‘The message this sends is that in the UK we now penalise aspiration rather than encourage it. Mums and dads who just want their children to have better opportunities than they did will see this for what it is - a stealth tax on learning and aspiration.’

Martin Freedman, head of pay, conditions and pensions at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said:  ‘The new levels of tuition fees will, without doubt, put off students from going into the moderate and less well paid graduate professions such as teaching. The varying caps on fees will also drive some smaller universities to the wall.’

 

 

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