More than a fifth of England’s universities have applied to change their fee packages, just weeks before the application deadline.
The Office for Fair Access (OFFA) said 27 of England’s universities had sought to lower fees to make use of new measures that could allow them to expand, BBC News reports.
Universities were required to submit their plans for higher charges, bursaries and fee-waivers for certain groups of students in April, before the Government published its proposals in the Higher Education White Paper.
The plans included allowing universities to charge less than £7,500 a year in fees to expand by bidding for 20,000 new places.
This change was widely seen as a last-minute measure to bring down the cost of tuition fees, after more universities than expected planned to charge the maximum amount.
Many of the universities seeking to change their tuition fees have blamed the Government and the late announcement of the Higher Education White Paper.
Vice-chancellor of West London University Professor Peter John said the university had decided to lower its fees slightly from £7,498 to £7,400 after the mechanism for calculating average fees was changed.
“The delayed publication in June of the Government’s White Paper then shifted the goal posts [of student number controls].”
He also said the fact that a number of policy changes came quite late had added ‘much uncertainty to applications in an already uncertain environment’. “The Government haven’t helped in their message, they have not been clear and there is a lot of concern and anxiety, some students still believe they are going to pay fees up front,” he added.
The General Secretary of the UCU, Sally Hunt, commented: “Leaving universities and students to scramble around trying to save a few quid here and there is no way to run a world-class university sector. The Government’s decision to move the goalposts on fee levels after it got its sums wrong exposes the mess it has made of university funding.”
Labour’s Shadow Higher Education Minister Shabana Mahmood said: “It is unbelievable that students have had to apply for courses before knowing how much they will pay in fees. The Government’s rushed and haphazard cuts to higher education budgets go too far, too fast, with universities unable to plan ahead and frustrated students without the full information to help them apply.”
A Department for Business, Innovation and Skills spokesman defended the recent changes, commenting: “We are putting students at the heart of the system, with a diverse range of providers offering high-quality teaching. The Director of Fair Access has made it clear that students need to come first and anyone who has already applied should not be disadvantaged by any changes. Institutions are expected to contact any affected students to explain any changes.”
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by Victoria Bamber
