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T H E ‘P R O P S’ C H A R I T Y
UWE’s Issue U W E StudentVVoice E -R S No. U 8 S- May 2011 B R I S T O L
VARSITY
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The South West’s biggest inter-university clash >> 20
SERIES 2011
uWE TO CHARGE
maximum fEES OF £9,000 > Will fee increases deter some students? > UWE puts in place restructured bursary system to help less affluent cope with fee hike
esternEye has evidence that UWE is almost certainly going to raise its tuition fees to the maximum £9,000 a year threshold from 2012/13 onwards. The fees will apply to all full-time UK and EU students and UWE intends to increase incrementally year upon year in line with inflation. Putting the price tag of a three year degree at a sizeable £27,000, the cost of higher education in the UK is now comparable with that of the United States. The new maximum fee cap has raised questions over whether students from less affluent backgrounds will be put off going to university. Despite the massive leap in the base cost of education at UWE, measures are apparently being taken to ensure that students from “Low Participation Neighbourhoods” are not marginalised by the rise. Government guidelines state that universities must funnel £1 in every £9 taken in fees back into funding for low-participation, or ‘priority’, groups. This equates to £1000 in support for a less affluent student, for each one who pays the full amount. Groups being specifically targeted for greater inclusion by UWE include:
Students from Black and Minority Ethnic groups; disabled students; students from groups that are underrepresented in the professions (law, medicine etc). A bursary system will still exist at
UWE to assist less well off students, allocated on a sliding scale of individual requirement as it is now. Although, according to the UWE website, exact figures have not been released yet, WesternEye has seen evidence that students will receive up to £1000 in their first year, plus up to £2000 in vouchers which can
be exchanged for accommodation, laptops and other ancillaries. Second and third year students will receive an additional £1000 each year. It has been suggested that UWE has “used bursaries as marketing tools” in the past, as a way of attracting students from less affluent backgrounds. Despite the significant rise in tuition fees, it seems as if more people than ever, from a more diverse socio-economic backgrounds will be attending English universities. Or does it? The number of people that will be able to pay their fees up front can only be smaller than the number that were able to pay the previous fee of £3,250 per year. This means one thing; greater front-end borrowing from the state. An article in The Guardian on 20th April stated that “The Treasury is faced with a funding black hole because the initial cost of students’ fees is borne by the government.” This figure is exacerbated by the predicted loan default rate of 30%, meaning that just under a third of fee loans will never be recovered by the state. Given that the Treasury’s coffers are infamously depleted at the moment, the impact of an elevated level of student borrowing could only be offset in a finite number of ways. Continued on page 4...
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