Education Funding - Tuition Fees in the UK

Since 1999, most students on higher education courses have been required to make an annual financial contribution to the cost of their course.

The tuition fee cap was increased to £9,000 for new entrants from 2012/13. Tuition Fee Loans are available to cover these costs for both full and part-time students.

The government regulator - the Office for Fair Access (Offa) - has to approve access agreements for universities that want to charge fees of over £6,000. They have estimated that the average headline fee for new students in 2013 was £8,385.

According to government data, 129 of the 172 institutions (75%) in 2015 had a maximum headline (pre-waiver) annual tuition fee of £9,000. The majority of institutions with lower maximum fees were further education colleges and only three universities had maximum fees below £9,000. 44 (25%) institutions had an average headline fee of £9,000 and hence planned to charge the maximum for all their courses.

The Labour Party has a proposal to cut maximum tuition fees to £6,000 per year if they are in power after the 2015 General Election

Reading

BBC news - Tuition fees - should they go higher or lower? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-30080662

BBC news - Why lowering tuition fees is more complicated than you think - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-30922032

BBC news - Did £9,000 fees cut the number of applications? (price elasticity of demand) - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-30684462