Despite growing calls from Vice Chancellors from various tertiary institutions in England to improve the dwindling financial status of their universities, Higher Education Minister, Robert Halfon has rejected pleas to raise the ceiling on students’ tuition fees.
Though Halfon acknowledged that some colleges have been struggling financially, he stated that increasing tuition fees at this very time of increasing living expenses is “just not going to happen, not in a million years.”
Halfon also clarified that, the administration is determined to limit the number of students enrolled in “low-value” degrees, or degrees with low rates of graduates getting professional employment, enrolling in graduate school, or starting enterprises.
He argued that, the adjustment was in accordance with his goals of “jobs, skills, and social justice” and would improve efficiency.
The fact that vast majority of universities are in good financial health doesn’t mean that there aren’t some that are not, Halfon noted. “I know the ‘Office for Students’ is investigating some, and I completely get challenges that are being faced,” he added.
“But if you look at the research grant, the loans, the money we give £1.5bn strategic priorities grant plus the £750m on teaching facilities additional government funding announced last year universities get £40bn a year,” he averred.
“If you compare that to the FE sector over the years although we’re increasing skills funding by £3.8bn given the difficult financial constraints we have, I can’t go to my constituents in Harlow and say, ‘By the way, on top of everything else, on top of all the other cost-of-living challenges, we’re going to increase your tuition fees.’
“It’s just not going to happen, not in a million years. I just think we have to be real, that we have to live in the world as it is, which is an incredibly difficult one faced by cost-of-living challenges.”
Robert Halfon, Higher Education Minister.
The present freeze will last at least through 2024–2025. However, some Vice Chancellors have made the argument that, the 2012 implementation of the 9,000 pounds, which later increased to 9,250 pounds, five years later, is valued little like 6,000 pounds to tertiary institutions, because it has been affected by recent inflation spikes.
The University financial crisis has resuscitated issues surrounding international students, whose higher tuition fees are used to fend off the gap caused by the depreciations of local tuition fees.
In the same vein, it has ignited the conversation that many local students and applicants might forfeit their spot due to increase in tuition fees and rising cost of living.
According to the sector, financing for higher education would likely reach a record low in practical terms since the 1990s, and the percentage of English institutions recording an in-year shortfall rose from 5% in 2015–16 to 32% in 2019–20.
Investigations revealed that, the financial status of the UK universities is heavily dependent on the tuition fees of international students. The research further underscored that, one in every five pounds generated by the universities, came from foreign students.
According to Jo Johnson, a former Conservative Minister, universities would be “falling over one by one,” if the cap is not raised to match up with the inflations.
Also, a coalition of 140 tertiary institutions, by the name Universities UK, has advocated for a “national conversation” on adopting a cogent approach to mitigate the financial challenges of universities.
READ ALSO: Sharp Denounces Biby Stockholm’s Tag As A Death Trap
