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Lift £3,000 cap on fees or we'll lose our elite status say universities
Tim Ross29.04.09
Britain's leading universities warned today they are in danger of losing their elite status because student fees fail to cover the costs of tuition.
Imperial College London called for the £3,000-a-year cap on fees to be raised to allow universities to invest in new research facilities and more scholarships for the brightest undergraduates. Oxford and Cambridge said they were subsidising the cost of teaching to the tune of tens of millions of pounds a year.
Members of the Russell Group of leading research institutions warned that the shortfall in funding cannot be sustained without compromising quality.
The findings, in a Financial Times survey, come ahead of a government review of tuition fees due to be launched this year.
Undergraduates are charged fees of £3,145 per year but pay nothing until after they have graduated and found work. This year's finalists are the first generation to have been through three-year degree courses under the higher fees regime.
Two former education secretaries - David Blunkett and Charles Clarke - are among those warning against dramatically increasing tuition fees in a recession amid concerns that higher costs will deter students from applying. But universities are already pressing ministers to lift the cap on charges as they struggle to cover their costs.
Cambridge said it cost about £6,000 a year more to educate an undergraduate than it received from the government. The university said: "Is this sustainable? Probably not in the long term."
Oxford told the FT it was "subsidising" undergraduates "to the tune of about £60 million per year", because of a £7,000 gap between government funding and average teaching costs. Warwick University said it was clear that institutions needed more funding "from somewhere" to maintain their world rankings.
Imperial added: "We are in support of raising the cap, which would enable universities to offer increased scholarships to less well-off students..."
Five years ago Tony Blair encountered one of his biggest backbench rebellions over the Bill to increase tuition fees to £3,000 a year. Ministers are certain to face opposition from within the Labour party if the fees review recommends charging students more for courses.
A survey from the vice-chancellors' umbrella group, Universities UK, last month found universities were in favour of tuition fees of £6,500 a year. At this level, students would typically graduate with about £30,000 of debt.
Reader views (4)
Universities UK is a collection of chancellors and vice-chancellors who have recently awarded themselves and their henchmen 15% pay rises to their £200,000+ salaries. They're also planning large-scale redundancies for academic and other staff earning a tenth of that, and they are asking those staff to accept a 0.3% pay rise. Losing just one person earning £200,000 would pay for increasing that rise to 0.5%, or save the jobs of ten or more people that actually teach students.
It's not just the government that has got its education priorities wrong!
- Nigel, London
The 'elite' universities can get away with it.They are populated by students educated in the independent sector who are invariably from wealthy families.The top companies recruit exclusively from these universities so the 'elite' is preserved.If it ain't broke don't fix it.
The problem will come when the higher fees creep down from the elite institutions. Here the students are not so privileged and unlikely to make it into the higher paying jobs - they will have been conned and left tens of thousands in debt.
- Menudo Gilipollas, Kent
The premise on which fees were introduced in the first place was that students who gain degrees, earn more money than those who don't go to university. The fact that they will therefore pay more tax was conveniently overlooked.
This year, the majority of graduating students will not find work and hence will not earn more than those who didn't go to university. So the whole basis for fees is false. The true cost of sending a person to university is anything between £9,000 and £15,000 per year and probably more for medical students.
Experiences of my two eldest daughters who have been through the university system shows that the whole process needs reform. Courses could be run in two instead of three years if lectures occurred every day instead of a few hours a week. Additionally, year 1 doesn't seem to count towards the final grade so many regard it as an excuse to get drunk and waste the year.
Student loans are roughly enough to cover accommodation fees leaving parents to pick up the tab for living expenses. All this out of taxed income.
Compare this to those living on benefits who make and will never make any contribution to society.
The Govt have definitely got their priorities wrong.
- Adam, Harrow, UK
Live in the real world. Please:
Lift the cap, raise standards, reduce total places, remove the marginal courses, and make it free for all that attend.
I dont need to claim for a second home to suggest this.
- Dave Davies, Basingstoke
