The University of Sunderland - whose vice-chancellor has called for higher fees to be charged
(Picture: Google Maps)University chiefs are reportedly calling for tuition fees for UK students to rise from their current £9,250 to nearer the £24,000-a-year that foreign students pay.
The Sunday Times reported that campus vice chancellors are increasingly looking to Indian and Chinese students. This is because of the UK-rate having been frozen since 2012, when it was controversially hiked up from around £3,000.
While the number of British applicants has fallen by 13 per cent, the foreign intake is up 7 per cent in the past year.
“You cannot expect to run universities on a fee level of £9,250 a year,” Sir David Bell, vice-chancellor at the University of Sunderland, told the Times.
“[This] by 2025 will be worth around £6,000 in real terms because of inflation.”
He added that for standards at post-18 institutions to be kept up, more money would be needed. The point was echoed by Colin Riordan, vice-chancellor of Cardiff University, who said that government intervention over the fees was necessary to keep it “viable”.
If tuition fees had kept pace with inflation, they would now be at around £12,000 a year - around four times the amount charged for the 2011 intake.
A department for education spokesman said: “The student finance system must be fair for students, universities and the taxpayer, and it is right that we have frozen tuition fees to reduce the burden of debt on graduates.
“To support universities, we’re providing £750million extra funding over the next three years.”
They added that giving a space to an international student does not take a space away from a British one.
