Alice Calcraft
For the first time in 8 years, university tuition fees are set to rise. Starting next year, university tuition will cost £9535 a year, which is a £285 increase from the previous fees of £9250 a year.
Announced on Monday 4 November, the rise in fees is argued to have occurred due to inflation. Prior to this decision, universities hoped to balance the increased inflation in the country with the inflated tuition fees of international students, who pay anywhere between £10,000 to £30,000 to study at a UK university. However, the government’s decision to restrict international students’ has meant that the number of international students has fallen by about a third. In line with the ever-increasing inflation, it is currently unclear whether this increased amount of tuition fees will be capped this year, or whether it could increase further over the next few years.
To accompany the rise in tuition fees and inflated cost of living, there will be an increase in the maintenance loan. Education Secretary Bridget Philipson stated in the House of Commons on Monday that they ‘will boost support for students with living costs by increasing maximum maintenance loans in line with inflation, giving them an additional £414 a year’.
This decision appears to have split students, university staff, and education experts across the country, considering the rise in tuition fees but also the increased maintenance fees along with it. Laura Trott, newly appointed Education Secretary for the Conservative party, argued that this rise in tuition fees is unfair: ‘pushing up costs for students at short notice in an unreformed system will lead to students up and down the country feeling betrayed’. Similarly, Jo Grady, secretary of the University and College Union, which represents over 120,000 university staff members, states that the fee rise is ‘economically and morally wrong’. However, the chief executive of Universities UK Vivienne Stern said that the decision ‘is the right thing to do’ in line with inflation and ensuring that the value of fees remains stable, arguing along with it that ‘the increase in maintenance loans is also very welcome and important’.
At present, students are not expected to pay back their student loans until they earn over £25,000 a year when a regular payment will then come out of their salary. If someone were to never earn above this threshold, they would never be expected to pay back the loan, and all loans for students are written off after age 65.
On average, undergraduate students leave university with a debt of around £43,000. However, the rise in tuition fee loans and an increase in maintenance loans, which will ease the cost of living but also eventually have to be paid back, means that the average student debt will increase. This means that, at the end of their time at university, the average student will come out of university with not only a degree but decades’ worth of debt.
Alice Calcraft
