Survey: £3,000 fees at most universities
Almost all English universities plan to charge the maximum £3,000 a year tuition fee for degree courses from 2006, a survey by the Independent has shown. So far only one university has declared that it will charge less than the full amount – as we reported a few weeks ago, Leeds Met will charge £2,000 across the board.
Others have been reluctant to follow – either they are too strapped for cash to be able to even consider it, or they are worried that offering "cut-price" degrees will give an impression of lower quality, which would in turn put off potential students.
Three quarters of institutions have now made their decisions ahead of the January deadline for submitting their plans to the new access regulator.
The results, which are the first to cover confirmed plans rather than expectations, reflect the findings of an earlier survey by the Guardian. They may come as a surprise to the government, which had said that it expected around 80% to charge the full amount – it now seems likely that the proportion will be much higher.
The news is not all bad for students, however. The poll also indicated that universities are planning stacks of new bursaries to entice students from poorer backgrounds despite the higher fees. Scholarships of up to £5,000 per year could be on offer – UCL is hoping to be the first to guarantee these – and up to a quarter of fee income could be handed back to students.
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