Exeposé
£9,000
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Monday March 7 2011 Issue 577 www.exepose.com
Photo: Henry White
•Exeter first outside Russell Group to announce £9,000 fees •Graduates to repay fees when earning over £21,000 •Guild pledges to ensure rise will benefit students
Charlie Marchant News Editor EXETER UNIVERSITY has announced plans to charge students the maximum tuition fee of £9,000 a year. Exeter is the first university which is not part of the Russell Group to declare its fees plan, consequently causing concerns over how many universities
will opt for the highest tuition fee. The Government had claimed that fees of £9,000 would be charged only in exceptional circumstances. Ministers warned that if average tuition fees rose above £7,500 it would mean unaffordably high costs in loans to students, and subsequent pressure on funding could mean a cut in university places. Exeter University is, however, the
first of the research-intensive 1994 Group to set its fee, which it plans to introduce in time for the 2012 year of entry for all undergraduate courses. This is despite assertions from David Willetts, Universities Minister, that costs of Arts and Humanities courses could be covered by £6,000 per year and £7,000 for laboratory-based and medical courses. David Allen, Registrar and Deputy
Chief Executive, wrote in an e-mail to Exeter students: “We felt that it was important to signal Exeter’s intent to charge £9,000 as early as possible so that we could begin planning for 2012 with certainty. I am sure you will share our confidence that Exeter should seek to be in the same fee bracket as universities such as Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial, which have already signalled their
intent to charge the full amount.” He added, “Future students will repay the fee only when they have graduated and are earning more than £21,000 a year. Above this amount, repayment will be at 9 per cent of income and debt will be forgiven after 30 years. It is estimated that only 30 per cent nationally will repay the whole fee.” Continued on page 3