Article: How much will university cost me in the future?

Recently the Government announced plans to make changes to how universities in England are allowed to charge tuition fees. Although the changes have been reported as a ‘rise’ in fees, this isn’t exactly true.

To make things clearer for you about what is actually going to happen we asked the experts at Wonkhe to explain what the future of tuition fees is likely to look like and how it might affect you.

If you're considering going to university in the future this is a must-read.

You can view the page at http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/content.php?r=26115-how-much-will-university-cost-me-in-the-future

(edited 7 years ago)

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Reply 1

M14B

I felt sad reading this link

Reply 2

She-Ra

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by M14B

I felt sad reading this link

Read the article it's really helpful :h:

Let me know if you have any questions :yep:

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 3

veni_vidi_vasi

Original post by She-Ra

Let me know if you have any questions :yep:

Just to clarify, does that mean that 2016 fees stay at £9000/yr every year?

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 4

Galaxie501

What? I though education was free. --- Im also a Bernie supporter.

Jokes aside though, this is not a nice developement, but not nearly as high as US Uni costs. They're in outer space.

Reply 5

AsphodelMist

There are rumours that in the future our loans will be sold off to external loans companies, like they did in America, meaning interest on loans may become astronomical and they won't take on the 'scrap debt after 30 years' approach. Do you think this is likely to happen? And what effect do you really think it would have?

Reply 6

Ordo

This is so unfair for low/middle class people - what about poor people but they have potential to get degree?

Reply 7

Pato1

Maybe if the conservatives actually took some effort in fixing tax loopholes they could subsidise uni fees, even just a few thousand off the 9k would be fine.

Reply 8

Snufkin

Universities Forum Helper

Strange article, it seems to be trying to spin government plans to increase tuition fees (and it is a fee increase) as a positive and justifiable change. I don't believe it is justifiable, and it certainly isn't a good thing for students.

Tuition fees shouldn't increase with inflation unless repayment thresholds increase too. The £21,000 threshold at which you begin repaying your student loan was supposed to go up in line with average earnings from 2017. The government has broken this promise and has frozen the 21k threshold until at least 2021. It feels as though there is one rule for universities and another for students.

The government agreed that fees should increase in line with inflation. This year, they agreed to the universities’ requests to increase fees to 'keep up' with the annual inflation in costs. However, the government have demanded something in return from the universities in order for them to keep the buying power of fees the same from year to year. Universities must show that their teaching is good enough to justify the higher fees, through an evaluation called the 'Teaching Excellence Framework', or TEF.

The TEF will begin in 2017, though it won't be fully in action until 2019. In 2017 and 2018, we expect most universities to meet the minimum standard required to increase their fees by the rate of inflation.

In 2011 David Willetts, the then universities minister, repeatedly said that only a small number of universities would charge the top 9,000 figure. He said that in order to charge the full 9k fee, a university would have to provide the highest quality education and increase their provision of grants to poorer students. This didn't happen. In the end virtually every university in the country charged the top fee. Who's to say that this Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) won't do exactly the same thing?

I'd like to know exactly what these minimum standards are. I would not be surprised if they're set so low that they could be applied to every university in the country.

Reply 9

She-Ra

Universities Forum Helper

Spoiler

I completely understand where you're coming from in terms of the Government to-ing and fro-ing but the point of this article wasn't to unravel the politics of this situation, it was to explain how, in principle, tuition fees will look like in the future based on the Teaching Excellence Framework.

There is a lot of information on the TEF here https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/teaching-excellence-framework-tef-everything-you-need-to-know

Reply 10

Snufkin

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by She-Ra

Yeah I get that, it is a good idea to let prospective students know what fees will look like in the coming years. I just think TEF it is a really, really bad idea and I was rather hoping that it'd quietly be dropped. You don't mind me giving my opinion, do you?

Reply 11

She-Ra

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by Snufkin

Not at all, what you've said will resonate with a lot of students and I completely get your frustration.

I just wanted to explain the background to how this guest blog came about, we're not siding with the government, we're trying to practically explain what it means for today's GCSE students who are naturally really worried about what the increases will mean for them and whether they'll be able 'afford' university in the future.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 12

username2324383

Original post by veni_vidi_vasi

Just to clarify, does that mean that 2016 fees stay at £9000/yr every year?

Yes

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 13

She-Ra

Universities Forum Helper

Moved this thread over to A-levels to make sure you guys see this :h:

Post if you have any questions :smile:

Reply 14

eddso

I feel like it's important to make clear that you will only ever pay back your university fees once you earn a certain amount; so you only pay it back if your education at the university has benefitted you in a way that it gets you a better job. There is often much talk about people not being able to afford to go to university but the simple fact is that everyone can afford to go to university. We all leave with a debt and we all only pay it back once we get a job that pays enough so we can afford to pay it back.

Very few students will be fortunate enough to have their parents pay their debt off for them so the social class that to student comes from does not make a difference.

Higher tuition fees will enable a higher standard of teaching and facilities within each institution, meaning you are getting a better quality degree which everyone can afford.

Reply 15

Random.guy

This is extremely unhelpful to those of us who can't get a loan i.e. mature students going into medicine or dentistry who can't qualify for another student loan. I feel it's even worse as I never even used the student loans for my first degree when it was 3250 and yet I can't get a student loan to pay for my second degree how will I be able to pay for the year on year increases with inflation when I wouldn't be able to work whilst studying, as the medical/dental degrees don't give you this freedom that all other degrees do. :frown:

Reply 16

Nekorubi

Hello

, I know that there is going to be an increase of money, but is it going to apply fo EU students for the course loans?

Reply 17

azajac

The grading system for universities is vague with limited details so shouldn't be used as a way to justify increasing tuition fees; the system simply sounds like a means of pricing out working class people into good universities (you need to pay more to get into a better uni) which is horrifically unfair and damaging to everyone in the society.

Reply 18

Clearing and Applications Advisor

Original post by Snufkin

It's still not clear that it wont be (at least according to the founder of WonkHE...).
http://wonkhe.com/blogs/comment-the-he-bill-dead/

There's a definite argument that the changes to funding for universities in 2012 were not properly costed or sustainable (hence the freeze on the repayment threshold to try to make the books balance and this sudden panicky realisation that locking in university funding at 2012 prices isn't going to work - quick lets bring in a new bill and a system to allow inflation related rises).

Staff costs for universities since 2012 have risen well above inflation - at the same time income from fees has been decreasing (because they haven't risen with inflation) and the base unit price for more expensive courses has been decreasing by 1% pa (so not just static but actively cut year on year).

That's not a situation that will last - eventually something will give and unfortunately a lot of what gave was student experience related....bunging an extra 10 students into each lecture and overworking your staff - £90k more coming in (plus any profits on your luxury overpriced en suite accommodation) for minimal costs. The one *good* thing about the TEF is that it solidly links student experience measures to the ability to charge more - so offers a direct financial incentive to improve teaching (which indirectly means improving working conditions for teaching staff) and improving the curriculum and links with business to promote better employment prospects after graduation.

The TEF looks not at overall satisfaction but at the NSS measures for "teaching", "assessment and feedback" and "academic support" - plus non-continuation, unemployment rates and high skilled employment rates.

And it's ALL benchmarked - so universities that just take students with twenty A*s but have a lot dropping out or more than average unemployment will end up looking worse than universities that take students with BBB and teach them well, retain them and prepare them well for graduate employment or study. The benchmarks take into account the subjects studies and the entry qualifications of students...plus they highlight universities that might be failing their mature students, or BME students, disabled students, international and EU students or those from low participation postcodes. It's actually a pretty good framework to identify universities that are actively GIVING something to their students over those that treat them as cash cows or an inconvenience to be lived with to subsidise research funds.

(but then it might not happen - and they'll just shortcut and allow every university to charge £9k+inflation every year....)

Reply 19

jamesthehustler

Original post by Galaxie501

What? I though education was free. --- Im also a Bernie supporter.

Jokes aside though, this is not a nice developement, but not nearly as high as US Uni costs. They're in outer space.

I can agree 8 months for me is $23,000 or £16,100 (equal to £24,150 per year)
plus other living expenses so it about £100,000 to spend a year out there