Tuition fees 'may rise to £6,000

A survey of England's university managers has raised fears of tuition fees rising to at least £6,000 a year, with fees for some science courses potentially reaching £10,000 - reports the BBC.

Vice-chancellors from the Russell Group - the top 20 universities which conduct the most research - said maximum fees of £3,000 would have to at least double following a review of the system in 2009.

A questionnaire was sent by the Guardian newspaper to every university in England, almost all of which charge the maximum £3,000 fee. Some 40 vice-chancellors responded - most anonymously

One Russell Group head suggested families should expect to save much more for their children's education.

Comparing the average funds available to teach an undergraduate in England, £7,300, with those available in the United States - some £11,500, he said there were only two ways to bridge the gap.

"One is by increased government grant, which seems unlikely in the present circumstances, the other is by a higher tuition fee charge," he added.

If the government claims that it's not affordable to improve the quality of Britain's university graduates by contributing to resources available to teaching, rather than allowing universities to pile yet more financial burdens on students, then it's clearly time to cut unjustified government spending from elsewhere.

The government claims that education is a top priority. But that doesn't really match with forcing still more debt onto students while planning to waste £115 million every week on payments to the European Union.

Student debt doubles as top-up fees hit poorest

Student debt has doubled over the last six years and students from poorer families are suffering most, according to government research published yesterday.

The Guardian says that final year students averaged £7,918 debt at the end of their course and students from poor homes averaged £9,842, according to the survey of 3,700 undergraduates and trainee teachers at 88 universities and colleges in England and Wales.

Top-up fees were considered a key factor, and increasing numbers need help from their families. From this autumn students will be charged £3,000 a year, more than double what most pay now.

It was always going to be the case that the promised extra funding for universities from the introduction of tuition fees could only be delivered by rapidly hiking the cost to students from the initial level of £1,000 a year.

More public money could be invested in supporting students from poorer backgrounds and basing access to higher education more on academic ability if we weren't wasting so much cash by handing it to the EU.