Willetts threatens £9k universities with funding cuts
Universities that charge £9,000 in tuition fees could face overall funding cuts, David Willetts said today.
In a speech at the Universities UK spring conference, the higher education minister suggested government sanctions to stop universities across the UK charging the upper limit.
Mr Willetts threatened that if many universities charged their students over the £7,500 average the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills had planned for, the increase would be offset by cuts to government block grants.
“If the average of charges comes out higher than the £7,500 which we have used as a modelling assumption, we will have to consider the option of meeting that increased cost to the student finance budget by making offsetting reductions in the remaining HEFCE grant,” he said.
“So your own actions further increase your risk – and none of us want to see that happen.”
The harder government line comes in response to growing fears that many universities will charge the maximum fee to meet general losses from higher education funding cuts. Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial have already said they will charge £9,000.
“Institutions can clearly offer higher education at a price much less than £9,000,” said the universities minister.
“Unless universities can prove that there will be a commensurate and very significant improvement in the education on offer, it is difficult to see how such an increase could ever be justified, let alone at a time of fiscal restraint.”
In December, the government voted to increase the tuition fee threshold to a maximum of £9,000.
The policy has been with fury amongst students who have protested across the country.
Sally Hunt, University and College Union (UCU) general secretary, said university fees were a “complete debacle”.
“Universities are essentially being told they cannot charge the fee they need to recoup money that government has cut, but at the same time that they must offer a better experience because students are paying higher fees,” she said.
“Such a move will see even bigger class sizes and an inevitable drop in the whole university experience for students. The government needs to review its plans to slash so much of the teaching budget.
“It is utterly ludicrous to expect universities to offer more for less and even more ridiculous to encourage students to complain at a time when it is clear they are getting a raw deal.”
