An analysis by Universities UK has suggested tuition fees need to rise to meet current teaching costs.  

According to an analysis presented to Vice-Chancellors earlier this month, tuition fees in England would need to increase to £12,500 per year to reach a break-even point amid warnings of an escalating financial crisis facing universities.  

However, leaders at the Universities UK (UUK) annual conference were told that they would look too “out of touch” if they went ahead with the suggested 35% fee increase from the current £9,250 standard rate.  

Shitij Kapur, Vice-Chancellor of King’s College London, stated that the last time universities in England covered the total costs of undergraduate teaching was in 2015-16, when tuition fees were £9,000.  

The proposal follows a statement from the Chair of UUK, who said UK universities risk “sliding into decline” unless urgent action is taken to address the serious financial pressures.   

Dame Sally Mapstone, President of Universities UUK, which represents 141 higher education institutions, has warned that the sector is at a “fork in the road” and called for a “rebalancing of responsibility for funding” in England.   

At least 40% of all universities in England and Wales are currently either in or entering substantial budget deficits—including UEA—with the University and College Union (UCU) calling for the government to commit to an “emergency rescue package” for the sector.  

Speaking to the BBC following the collective statement, the National Union of Students (NUS) Vice-President for Higher Education, Alex Stanley, said last week:  

“Bridget Phillipson (Labour’s new Education Secretary) has called that position [raising fees to £12,500] untenable, and we completely agree with her. We also agree with Universities UK who said that back when tuition fees were first introduced [1998], they were done so on the understanding that there would be a level amount of public [tax-payer] and private funding – and currently, the public level of funding is actually just 16%…So we’d like to see a real rebalancing of that so the system works for both students, but also universities”.  

At the end of the last academic year, UEA’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor David Maguire, told Concrete how the current tuition fee price cap needed to be lifted and index-linked to inflation. The current £9,250 fee (set in 2017) is now worth just £6,000 in real terms in 2024, adjusted to inflation.  

“We’re trying to deliver effectively the same educational experience and outcomes with only two-thirds of the figure”, he explained. When pressed on specific numbers, the VC argued, “I’d like to be arguing for an increase to the £14,000 that it would have been worth, had it gone up with inflation [since 2017]”. However, he added, “That’s, of course, unrealistic all-round, but stopping the damage by index linking it to inflation would be important”.   

No decisions have been made to increase the current tuition fee rate at a national level or within UEA.  

You can read more about the analysis on the Universities UK website. You can contact the UEASU Advice Centre online or the Student Information Zone on The Street regarding any financial concerns.