When the government regulatory body OFFA announced this week that all English universities had been allowed to charge the fees they had set for themselves, equal access campaigners were angry but unsurprised. The ‘toothless’ regulators put in place by the government to allow tuition fees of £9000 only “under exceptional circumstances” have allowed fees to climb to an average of £8393.
As the tuition fees furore continues, two teenagers have won an unprecedented battle to take the fight to the High Court. They will argue that the government’s new tuition fees policy contravenes human rights law by disadvantaging students from poorer backgrounds and creating an elitist system where university is for the rich.
A shocking new survey is ruffling government feathers with conclusive statistics proving that over 50% of current final year university students would not have applied if tuition fees were £9000. We look at the details and implications of the survey.
As the deadline arrives for universities to submit their proposed levels of tuition fees for 2012, we provide a condensed summary of all the vital facts and developments on tuition fees.
Yet more problems have beset the troubled tuition fees scheme this week, as it emerged that a major flaw in the government plan will disadvantage tens of thousands of students choosing to defer entry to take a gap year.
As England’s top universities flock to announce top tuition fees of £9000, worrying statistics show that the top Oxbridge Universities have failed to meet targets to improve their intake of state school pupils. We ask why millions of pounds are being poured into access and outreach schemes that are quite obviously not working in the way they should.
A concise overview of the current situation on tuition fees, explaining claims that the government has made mistakes in its education budget calculations for tuition fees, and setting out the potential outcomes of the situation.
A study by leading accountancy firms shows that students may have to pay back double the enormous student loans required to attend university under the new coalition government’s plans for £9000 tuition fees. The longer repayment period is being billed as an attractive proposition by the government but will actuallly mean vast sums of interest accrued by graduate debts.
