university-tuition fees-hiked-up

This is why university bosses want your tuition fees to be hiked up

If tuition fees had risen with inflation, UK students would be paying around £12k a year


University bosses want to see UK students paying more tuition fees, The Sunday Times reports.

They claim that if tuition fees had kept pace with inflation, UK students would be paying £12,000 a year rather than £9,250.

This comes as students bear the brunt of the cost of living crisis, with the NUS reporting that one in ten are forced to use foodbanks.

While home tuition fees have been frozen for a decade, the number of international students at UK unis has increased.

One in five undergraduates attending uni this autumn will be from overseas, up seven per cent in just a year.

Meanwhile the percentage of British graduates has plummeted by 13 per cent.

Uni bosses claim they have no choice but to back a home tuition fee rise. International students who pay around £24,000 a year, fill the financial gap left by home tuition fees.

Vice Chancellor of the University of Sunderland, Sir David Bell, told The Times: “You cannot expect to run universities on a fee level of £9,250 a year, which by 2025 will be worth around £6,000 in real terms because of inflation.

“If you want to keep running universities even at the level we have now, you have to increase the tuition fee at some point.”

Bell added that he wanted to give places to international students “as a matter of choice, not simply because there is a financial imperative to do it”.

He concluded: “Universities cannot afford not to take more overseas students.”

Oxford, Cambridge and Bristol (the UK’s most selective unis) turned away four in ten UK candidates who applied for courses starting this autumn.

According to Ucas, this is the highest recorded rejection rate.

Education secretary James Celeverly has been adamant that the government won’t lift the tuition feee cap.

A Department for Education spokesman said: “The student finance system must be fair for students, universities and the taxpayer, and it is right that we have frozen tuition fees to reduce the burden of debt on graduates. To support universities, we’re providing £750 million extra funding over the next three years.

“It is a myth that offering a place to an international student takes a place away from a student in the UK. They actually support the creation of more places for domestic students.”

Featured image via Shutterstock / Ink Drop

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