Tuition fees and access to higher education

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Tuition fees and access to higher education

• John Rushforth
• Deputy Director

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HE in England

• 78 Universities
• 14 General HE colleges
• 39 Specialist HE colleges
• 198 FE colleges providing HE courses

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Participation Rate Is Relatively Low
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998,000 FTEs
Postgraduate full-time 5
Postgraduate
part-time 6
Undergraduate
part-time 15
Undergraduate full-time 74
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Social Class Gap Is Wide and Persistent
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From 2006-07

• No up-front tuition fees
• Government pays the tuition fee to the HE
  institution initially
• Government recovers the fee after graduation
• Tuition fees can vary from 0 to 3,000

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Repayments

• Tuition fees repaid alongside any maintenance
  loan
• Student maintenance loans to 4000
• Collected through the payroll, like tax
• Salary threshold increased to 15,000 from
  2005-06
• Repayment rate 9 of excess income
• Zero real rate of interest
• Students from low income families get 2700 grant

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Why do all this?

• Put more income into HE
• Fairer sharing of the cost between graduate,
  graduates family and the taxpayer
• Increase influence of student demand on teaching
  quality
• Put more control with institutions

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Why OFFA

• Risk that potential students will
• Be concerned about debt
• Perceive that higher education is not affordable
• Something needed to safeguard and promote access
• An expectation that some variable fees will be
  invested in financial support for students

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What is OFFA for

• Regulate the charging of higher tuition fees (but
  only FT UG)
• Promote and safeguard fair access to HE
• Identify good practice in the promotion of
  equality of access to higher education
• But mustnt interfere with academic freedom

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OFFAs levers

• Access agreement
• Bursaries
• Outreach
• Financial Information
• Objectives
• Public documents
• Advice
• Publicity
• Fines
• Prohibition

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OFFA Requirements

• Expect more from those with furthest to go
• Additionality
• Ambitious milestones
• Collaborative outreach
• Monitoring
• Communication

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What will impact of fees be

• There is data on the fear of debt
• More generous student support package
• More places
• More communication
• More outreach
• Data on the initial introduction of tuition fees,
  and on the international experience, is
  encouraging

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Introduction of fees did not affect entry choices
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Will this deliver fair access

• Once prior attainment is sufficiently-well taken
  into account socio-economic background does not
  have an independent effect on HE participation.
• The substantial social class inequality in HE
  occurs largely as a result of inequalities
  earlier in the education system.

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Key Elements for Widening Participation

• Increased supply
• Effective outreach programme
• New modes of delivery
• Maintain retention rates
• Institutional strategies for widening
  participation
• Fair admissions
• Increased investment

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Funding

• 282 million to institutions in 2005-06
• 51 million outreach
• 11 million for disabled students
• 220 million for retention
• Distributed on the basis of risk
• 72 M for Aimhigher

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Summary

• English HE faces a long term complex problem
• We have put in place a system which tries to
  balance the contributions of the state, students
  and parents
• OFFA has provided assurance
• We have a lot more to do before the profile of
  the HE student body fully reflects that of
  society at large