Universities consider cutting fees

Jessica Shepherd, education correspondent guardian.co.uk

At least 12 universities are considering substantially dropping their tuition fees for next autumn from the maximum of £9,000.

At least two have expressed an interest in lowering fees substantially from the maximum of £9,000 a year, while a further 10 want to reduce fees marginally so that they are under £7,500, a government watchdog has said.

More than a third of English universities – 47 out of 123 – intended to charge £9,000 as their standard fee, the government's higher education access watchdog reported in July. The estimated average fee was £8,393, the Office for Fair Access (Offa) said.

However, universities are now reconsidering their sums after the government gave them incentives to charge less than £7,500, the watchdog said.

In a white paper this summer, ministers told universities that they could bid for 20,000 full-time undergraduate places next year if they charged less than £7,500. Vince Cable, the business secretary, has said the figure of 20,000 will increase in the future.

The white paper was published after universities decided on their fees for next year.

Offa said at least 12 universities had asked whether they could change their fees in light of the white paper. On Tuesday, it sent all universities an email with instructions on how to lower their fees. It said they would need to reissue an agreement stating how they would broaden their mix of students to ensure more teenagers from low-income homes went to university.

"You may be considering measures to lower your institution's net average fee, in order to bid for places," the email states. "This guidance … sets out how to make any resulting changes."

Teenagers deciding which universities to apply for will submit applications from the end of this month.

Eric Thomas, president of Universities UK (UUK) – the umbrella group for vice-chancellors – said some universities would want to bid for the 20,000 places and so would lower their fees.

He said changing fees would be a "complicated calculation" for universities and institutions would have to "get their skates on".

The white paper allows universities to accept as many students as they want with A-level grades of AAB or better. Universities would have to calculate how many students with these grades would apply to them, Thomas said.

Meanwhile, in a speech to UUK's annual conference, Thomas warned that university leaders were "anxious" that allowing universities to take unlimited numbers of AAB students would have consequences for social mobility, student choice and the sustainability of some courses.

"We urge you [the government] not to further accelerate the pace of change," he said. "AAB students tend to come from the more advantaged parts if society so the makeup of students may alter."

Cable, who also spoke at the conference, said allowing universities to bid for places and take unlimited numbers of some students "liberated what had been a Stalinist system of number control".

"We are not trying to introduce a two-tier system," he said.

He told universities that he was "cautiously optimistic" that students would continue to apply for degree places, despite higher tuition fees next year. However, he admitted there were still "misconceptions" about costs. Guardian