Study suggests university fees rise
Students would begin to turn their backs on university if tuition fees were raised to £7,000, says a study commissioned by Universities UK.
But undergraduates would not react if fees were raised to £5,000, it suggests.
The study, looking at the likely impact of changes to the current fee system, comes as the Government prepares to begin a review of tuition fees.
It examines a range of scenarios, considering what would happen if fees remained the same, at around £3,000, or if they were raised to £5,000 or £7,000. It also looks at options for payment, loans and bursaries.
The report suggests that if fees were raised to £7,000 a year, with students allowed to take a loan and pay it back after they graduate, a graduate in 2016 would have £32,400 worth of debt after three years of study, more than double the average total debt (£17,000) the study predicts for 2011.
If fees were raised to £5,000, the average total debt would be £26,400 in 2016, up from a predicted £17,200 in 2011.
The report suggests that there is evidence that a fee of £7,000 "will make potential students start to change their behaviour and may discourage some from enrolling in higher education".
"The increase in tuition fee therefore reduces student enrolment, affecting some institutions significantly more than others and making the university population as a whole less representative of the wider population."
But the study finds that increasing fees to £5,000 "is effectively maintenance of the status quo". It adds: "At this level, we believe that students are largely price-insensitive."
As part of the study, 12 university vice-chancellors suggested a wide range of figures that they believed fees should be set at, with an average of £6,500.
