Eligibility for tuition fees for private degree courses raised

Tue, 26 Apr 2011

The coalition government have stated that, from next year, students at private universities in England will be eligible for state-funded loans of GBP6,000 to go towards their tuition fees . The universities minister, David Willetts, also confirmed that grants for students continuing courses next year would increase from GBP2,906 to GBP2,984.

As private universities do not receive public funding, although they are allowed to award degrees, students at these institutions will not be able to receive the maximum GBP9,000 that public universities are allowed to charge. However, loans for tuition fees will also be available for distance-learning students for the first time, stated Willetts.

The government will fund student loans of up to GBP6,000 per year from 2012 to cover fees on designated courses, although students on some courses can already receive loans of up to GBP3,375, in addition to maintenance loans .

However, some university leaders have expressed concern regarding quality control, and John Denham, the Labour Party shadow universities minister, also commented "David Willetts is clearly threatening public universities with cut-price competition from the private sector who do not need to meet the requirements of any regulator, or meet access criteria."

The new system of increased fees means that tuition loans are paid upfront to the university by the government, and are then repaid once the student has graduated and is earning over GBP21,000.
add to favouritesnewsletterlink to this pagesend to friendpost comments

Link to this page

Copy and Paste the following HTML into your page.