Q&A: University tuition fees

On the eve of Lord Browne's review, we look at what is likely to be expected of students and their parents
Greek students at City University, London
How much are students going to have to pay? Photograph: Frank Baron

Tomorrow, Lord Browne will publish his year-long review into university funding. The former BP chief executive is likely to propose the most far-reaching changes to higher education in England for decades. If ministers accept his recommendations, most graduates will end up paying much more for their degrees. But just what is at stake and for whom?

Q: How much more could graduates have to pay for an undergraduate degree?

A: At the moment, the government pays students' fees while they are university. Once they graduate, and are earning £15,000 or more, they start to pay back £3,290 for each year of their degree.

Browne is almost certain to propose that this £3,290 rise to £7,000 or more. But he is thought likely to suggest that graduates pay for their fees once they reach a higher salary than £15,000.

Browne is also likely to suggest that graduates on high salaries pay back their fees at a higher rate of interest. This means these graduates would pay more than those on lower salaries even if they studied the same course at the same university.

Q: How is financial help for low-income or middle-income students likely to change?

A: Browne is expected to propose that universities that charge more than £7,000 per year in fees, put a proportion of their extra income into a pot that would be used to subsidise poor students.

He is likely to suggest that universities offer more bursaries, especially those institutions that have a low proportion of working-class students.

Q: How soon could the changes be implemented?

A: We don't know, but the changes might be implemented swiftly so that students in their first year of university in 2012 could be affected.

Q: Why does the system have to change at all?

A: Browne has effectively been asked to transfer the cost of higher education from the exchequer and the taxpayer to students, graduates and their families.

The government says it can no longer afford the system: for every £100 a student borrows to defer the payment of tuition fees until after graduation, the government pays about £35. This, it says, is unsustainable.

Added to this, there has been a 16% year-on-year rise in applications for university.

Q: Who wants what?

A: The Liberal Democrats campaigned on a pledge to phase out tuition fees over six years and so will be in a very uncomfortable position if the Conservatives want to implement Browne's recommendations and go for a substantial fee hike.

The universities minister, David Willetts, would rather have graduates pay more than reduce the number of students at university.

Ed Miliband, the new Labour leader, backs a graduate tax. This would mean graduates paid back their fees to the treasury and the treasury decided how much to transfer to universities.

Oxbridge and other top research-intensive universities want to be able to set fees and some might opt to charge £10,000 a year or more. They say they would ensure that there were sufficient funds to help students from low-income families.

The new universities do not want graduates to have to pay more for their degrees.

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