As English universities struggle with a widening financial crisis, Universities in the UK are likely to suggest more minor fee adjustments.
According to a report presented to pro-vice chancellors, universities in England must increase tuition fees to £12,500 per year to break even. This analysis was released amid the widening financial crisis facing universities.
Higher education leaders, however, were told at the Universities UK (UUK) annual conference that if they asked for a 35% increase in undergraduate tuition fees from the current £9,250, annual fees would look “out of touch” and that the UUK taskforce probably suggest a lesser increase.
The vice-chancellor of King’s College London, Shitij Kapur, stated that the previous period English universities broke even on undergraduate teaching costs was in the 2015-2016 academic year when tuition cost was £9,000 which is currently equivalent to £12,000-£13,000 after adjusting for inflation.
Kapur stated that £12,500 per annum might be the right amount to reflect an undergraduate degree, but it was not realistic for the public or government to accept.
Kapur questioned, “If we suddenly say we’ll go from £9,250 to £12,500, might we seem so out of touch and clueless that we would lose?”
The discussions over tuition fees come as several universities are facing several financial challenges, with tuition fees increasing due to rising expenses such as staff salaries. The tuition fees in England were increased from £9,000 to £9250 in 2012 by the Conservative government but have been frozen since 2017.
Kapur, a member of UUK’s “blueprint commission” working on regulations and funding, stated that its final draft proposal was for adjustments in the fees “somewhere in between” £9,250 and £12,500, paid for by a mix of higher tuition fees and indexed to inflation, increasing to £9,600 in 2025-2026, and a government raise in teaching grants.
Kapur said, “The issue is not the evidence. The issue is the headline ask.”
A UUK spokesperson stated, “If investment in teaching had kept up with inflation, funding per student would be in the region of £12,000-£13,000. To be clear, we are not calling for tuition fees to rise to this level. More and more of the burden is falling on graduates, and the UK is increasingly an outlier within the OECD.
“Our new research out today shows the significant benefits to the Treasury generated by graduates, and we believe it is time for a re-balancing of responsibility for funding to recognise that.”
A study published by UUK revealed that the government pays only 16% of the cost of university education, while the remaining 84% fail to graduate. It also estimates that every £1 spent by the government generates an additional £14 in graduates’ economic activities.
Bridget Philipson, the education secretary, told delegates via a video that there were “no easy answers or quick fixes” to the questions regarding funding.
Philipson stated, “I can’t promise painless or immediate resolutions but I do promise that these issues will get the attention and the commitment they deserve.”
David Willetts, a former Conservative universities minister and a member of the UUK commission, stated that he believed the new government was prepared to accept a deal with universities in England for higher funding.
Willetts stated, “There’s genuine anxiety in government about universities going bust. Nobody wishes to face that crisis, and the person with that ministerial responsibility has had that at the back of their minds, along with a ‘risk register’ of problem cases.
“And I think that risk register is looking riskier and more exposed than for a very long time.”
“Secondly, we need to get on with it because students are getting a very raw deal. Setting aside financial crisis, it’s just gradually eroding the quality of the student experience – lectures become more crowded, labs are less well equipped with up-to-date kit. Those are ways in which the education of the next generation is suffering.”
Sally Mapstone, the head of the University of St Andrews and the president of UUK, stated that England wasn’t confirmed to have a funding crisis.
Mapstone commented, “The most recent data shows a £1.7bn deficit across the UK in teaching alone, with a further £5bn loss in delivering research.
“I know from my visits to universities across the whole of the UK that while the exact cause of the funding challenge varies, we are all feeling the crunch.”
