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Friday, April 04, 2008
Students could face a substantial rise in university tuition fees and the cost of the loans they take out to cover the charges, research suggested yesterday.
Some universities want to charge £8,000 a year and ministers have promised to review the system in 2009.
A study by the Higher Education Policy Institute suggested that raising the current £3,000 a year limit could hit students from the poorest backgrounds.
Universities might have to waive fees above this level for the poorest students to make sure working-class applicants were not put off, the report said.
The study said it was "too early" to be sure whether the £3,000 top-up fee, introduced in 2006, had deterred students from poorer backgrounds.
But there was no "noticeable" impact on disadvantaged students from the introduction of tuition fees in 1998.
The institute suggested options for a new fees regime could see students charged a real rate of interest on the Government loans they take out to pay for their fees.
The loans, which mean students pay nothing towards their fees until after graduation, are charged at a zero real rate of interest.
Bill Rammell, the higher education minister, said it was too early to discuss future tuition fees.
He said: "The Government has always been clear that there will be no change to the current arrangements until after a thorough independent review of the first three years of the variable fees regime.
"We are barely more than halfway through this period."
Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union, said more government investment was a necessity to ensure a system that did not force students into more debt and universities into cuts.
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/
YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS ON A MORTGAGE OR ANY OTHER DEBT SECURED ON IT.