Student fees - the latest changes
Hundreds of students are taking to the streets, Cameron and Clegg are issuing statements to the press every minute and journalists are loving every second of it. It’s all down to proposed changes to how students pay to go to university. The changes will affect students starting university in September 2012, but what are they?
The big change is to what a year’s worth of tuition fees will cost. Currently the most a university can ask you for is £3,290. If the plans go ahead, this will go up to £9,000 a year. Although it’s worth keeping in mind that that is the maximum, the universities can charge less if they want.
That’s for full time students, for part-timers it’s a different kettle of kippers altogether. At the moment there aren’t any regulations on how much part time students pay, but it’s usually the about the same in total as full time students, it just takes longer and you have to pay up front.
After the changes, any student that studies for more than 25% of the time will get a loan like full-timers. If you work, say, 4 days a week and study for 1 you’ll still have to fork out before you start studying.
So that’s how much it costs but who pays? Well, you’re entitled to a loan to cover your tuition fees whilst you’re at university. At the moment you start paying that back when you earn £15,000. This will rise to £21,000 with the proposed changes.
All those loans and fees go towards the cost of your lectures and learning. For everything else there are maintenance grants, mum and dad and bank robbery to fall back on.
Last updated on: 10 January 2011