Coventry and Warwick Uni’s OK to charge £9,000 a year

[dutchman]

Both of our local universities have been given the go-ahead to charge up to £9,000 a year in tuition fees from next September.



That’s three times as much as current students are required to pay.

The Office for Fair Access has, as was expected, approved the proposed changes at 139 universities and colleges across the country.

Both Coventry and Warwick universities have provided evidence of discounts and bursaries which would help students from the poorest backgrounds study there.

At Coventry, a sliding scale will be brought in with the fees dependent on individual courses – it will range from £7,500 for subjects like English and Psychology to the full £9,000 for things like Engineering and Fashion. There will also be cheaper part-time courses.

Down the road at Warwick, the majority of the courses available will charge the maximum fee of £9,000 a year, with the part-time programmes and special 2+2 degrees costing £6,000 annually.

People coming from families with an income under £25,000 would be offered a package of fee waivers and bursaries which could come to £4,500 a year, or double the annual price of a course. At the moment 19 per cent of the university’s students fall within that category.

This all follows the government’s decision late last year to allow universities to triple their fees to replace state grants that are being cut.

Coventry University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Madeleine Atkins, said:

“We believe that the variable fees that we will charge in 2012 provide unbeatable value for money for our prospective students. Not only are our fees clear and understandable, with no hidden extras, but they allow students to enjoy excellent teaching and a quality academic experience. The students are offered overseas study or work experience, guaranteed contact time and real employment prospects, with 94% of last year’s graduates going into employment, further advanced study or professional training.”

A spokesman for Warwick University said: “Warwick students are taught by world-leading academics on a campus with a global reputation.”

“Warwick is also consistently ranked as one of the UK’s top ten universities.”

“We need to not just preserve that level of excellence, but to build on it and enhance it despite the reduction in funding that English universities are facing through the cuts to their teaching grants.”

Warwick’s Students Union are said to be ‘unhappy’ at the move, but have been in dialogue with officials to make sure the ‘student experience is improved’.