If you subscribe to the Times Higher Education, or even just watch the news, you’ll know that for months the public have been in uproar over plans to remove the cap for tuition fee pricing, meaning that universities would be able to charge £9,000 a year.
A number of demonstrations took place as students expressed their views on the new changes and appealed to the government to rethink their decision – though some students took this too far, as you probably know.
At the time, ministers predicted that tuition fees would average out at around £7,500 a year – still double the current amount.
Now it has emerged that more than a third of universities in England will be charging the maximum £9,000 for a year’s tuition, meaning that the average cost of a year’s tuition is in fact £8,161.
If a university plans on charging more than £6,000 a year, they have to work with the Office for Fair Access to come up with access agreements to allow poorer students to go into higher education.
Universities that will be charging £9,000 tuition fees for the 2012-2013 academic years include University of Southampton, King’s College, University of Manchester and Bristol University. So if you’ve always wanted to go there, we hope you’ve been saving up!
Only time will tell if these plans will work out and students feel that their degrees are worth the extra money.
In the meantime, make sure that you keep up-to-date with the latest news in education by subscribing to Times Higher Education. What’s more, you can get a 12 month subscription for just £49.00 on Direct Debit, which is a fantastic saving of 64% as well as FREE digital access for your iPod or iPad.
Subscribe and save on a Times Higher Education magazine subscription today.
Posted by Donnie Bachan
