UK universities demand higher fees and more funding in face of budget shortages

UK universities are to formally request higher fees and more government handouts to fund increasing deficits. This is the call from the representations body of 141 higher education institutions known as Universities UK. The current cut tuition fee cap in both England and Wales is set at £9,250, while Scotland’s students mostly do not pay, but other UK students go on paying £9,250.

Universities UK have proposed funding per student at between £12,000 and £13,000, which would actually help recover the additional costs both teaching and inflation impose on the sector. However, the group clarified that it does not necessarily mean that this will be passed on in direct 40% rises in student fees to meet that suggested level of funding.

According to BBC Radio 4’s Today program, Professor Dame Sally Mapstone, Principal of Universities UK and Vice-Chancellor of the University of St Andrews, described the issue as one requiring an urgent attention. “For the last eight to nine years, government scholarships and tuition fees do not match the rise in teaching costs and inflation and thus resulted in most of the institutions running into a scarcity of budget.” Ms. Mapstone said. She asked the government to conduct a review on the financial arrangement for the funding of universities, positing that the tuition fees and the government grants should strike a balance.

Mapstone noted her concern about the rising high fee increases and how this would skew the burden towards the students. She cited that the need to increase maintenance loans and grants could somewhat ease the burden on the students and not have them bear the bulk of the brunt of the increases. “We are aware of the alarm around higher fees, which is why student support must also be reassessed,” she said.

While these proposals have been widely railed against for creating increased student debt, Mapstone said, “The evidence suggests that university graduates have higher lifetime earnings compared with non-graduates.” And, while she says, Universities UK does lobby to increase fees to the full £12,000-£13,000.