British higher education watchdog OFFA reveals
that the average tuition will rise by a much larger amount than
initially expected by Cameron's government. The Prime Minister
leads a coalition of Conservative and Liberals that allows public
universities to triple their tuition fees. From 2012/2013 on,
British universities may increase their fees from £3.000 (€3.400)
to £9.000 (€10.200).
Originally, this was expected to lead to an average tuition fee
level of £7.500 (€8.500). However, since 58% of all universities
decided to charge the maximum amount for at least some of their
programs, this average will rise to a level of £8.161 (€9.250) even
including discounts for disadvantaged students.
Robin Hood's funding principle
OFFA who provided these numbers is an independent,
non-departmental public body that was created under Prime
Minister Tony Blair in 2004. This agency has to give the
final OK to each university which wants to increase their
tuition fees above £6.000 (€6.800). This permission depends on each
institute working out access agreements that outline how
they will reach out to disadvantaged students from non-academic
families with low incomes. Robin Hood remains a traditional British
approach of 'robbing the rich to hand out to the poor.'
Spending on access programs is consequently expected to increase
significantly from currently £407m (€461m) to £600m (€680m) in
2015/2016. OFFA, nevertheless, admitted that these numbers are mere
estimates from the universities´ budgets and did not factor in that
the overall study demand might decrease with higher tuition fees.
The goal is that less than half of the students will pay £9.000
(€10.200) including fee waivers and other financial support. How
reliable these numbers are, appears questionable given that the
calculations did not work out for the average tuition level
either.
The increased cash flow from higher tuition fees is
desperately needed after Cameron slashed the higher education
budget by £200m in 2010. Due to this move, an approximate 24.000
study places for UK and EU students were lost. Similarly,
as demand for places at British universities increased by 1,4%
this year, 220.000 British and European citizens could not start
their studies.
Brazil as new HE-market
Another source of aditional income are overseas
students coming to study in the UK. Non-UK and Non-EU citizens need
to pay up to £26.000 (€29.500) per year. To tap into this
market, David Willets, British Universities Minister, recently
travelled to South America meeting with Brazilian officials. Brazil
itself lacks a fully grown international higher education
sector.
Still, it is one of the most auspicious developing countries
boasting high economic growth (7,5% in 2010) and relatively low
inflation (4,4% in 2010). To guarantee a sufficient supply of
highly educated future 'leaders', Brazil plans to set up a
scholarship program allocating grants of £18.700 (€21.200) to
10.000 promising students who want to complete their studies in
Great Britain.
Despite being profitable, this move by Willets seems rather
schizophrenic for two reasons. First of all, already now British
universities fight with capacity shortages resulting in thousands
of students being turned away every year. Stakeholders involved in
the UK-Brazil deal meanwhile assure that there is nothing to worry
about. Steve Smith, chief executive at Universities
UK accompanied Willets on his trip and pledged that: "the
scholarships are for a period of under one year and will not mean
fewer places for UK students."
A second curiosity is that this extra policysupport for
recruiting overseas students goes against the pledge of Cameron to
curb immigration. By 2015 the current yearly
inflow of 196.000 immigrants should be cut down to the tens of
thousands. This would also result in 88.000 overseas students being
denied a visa. The policymakers seem to have found a loophole for
Brazilian students. What BRIC-nation will be next?