A potential student fee increase? King’s College London’s VC agrees ‘now is the moment’

King’s College London’s vice-chancellor, Professor Shitijj Kapur says “now is the moment” to increase tuition fees amid a surge in financially struggling universities.

During the recent Universities UK conference, various university officials discussed the “genuine anxiety” about universities potentially going bust.

To achieve the “number to ask for,” Professor Kapur suggested that fees per home student would need to rise to between £12,000 and £13,000 to allow universities to “break even” and remain on a stable footing.

The vice-chancellor also urged ministers to “increase funding for teaching to meet their real costs,” which would be achieved through a combination of fee increases and restoration of the teaching grant.

The deficit, partly caused by the current fee level of £9,250 per annum would need to be compensated by either increased fees or increased public subsidy.

The aforementioned figures have been calculated based on what the teaching investment would have been had it kept up with inflation. However, a Universities UK spokesperson told Times Higher Education that the organisation is “not calling for tuition fees to rise to this level.”

The President of UUK and Principal of the University of St Andrews, Dame Sally Mapstone, said: “Universities should not be afraid of change,” adding, “We can allow our distinguished, globally competitive higher education system to slide into decline, or we can act together, as institutions and with government, to ensure that higher education is able to deliver for the nation into the 2030s.”

However, Kapur did acknowledge that an increase in fees may “seem out of touch and clueless” to the general public and that it would be incredibly difficult to sell to the government, resulting in a projected rise to a mere £9,600, leading to a “managed decline”.

The actual value of fees has been impacted by inflation and eroded by increasing costs since 2012 when they rose to £9,000, with a £250 increase in 2017 in an effort to close the gap.

Lord Willetts, a Conservative and former universities minister, believes a “quid pro quo” would be necessary for increased fees, with the sector involving “tougher metrics” and demonstrating improvements in the teaching experience.

The goal of any agreement would be to “enable a minister to stand up in the House of Commons and say this is a deal which benefits students, [which could put] the finances of key layers in the British economy on a sounder footing, and will of course not involve anyone paying any more upfront.”

Lord Willetts, also urged the current Labour government to increase fees, noting that “these things do not get easier; they get harder.”

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