Tuition Fees in The United Kingdom

Tuition Fees In The United Kingdom

Tuition fees were first introduced across the entire United Kingdom in September 1998 as a means of funding tuition to undergraduate and postgraduate certificate students at universities, with students being required to pay up to £1,000 a year for tuition. However, as a result of the establishment of devolved national administrations for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, different arrangements now exist with regard to the charging of tuition fees in each of the countries of the United Kingdom.

In England, developments in the funding of higher education were announced in January 2004 when the UK government increased the level of tuition fees that universities were allowed to charge, to £3,000 a year. By 2010/11, maximum fees had increased to £3,290. In 2009, further calls for more funding to be made available to universities resulted in the commissioning of a report from the former chairman of BP John Browne to look into the future of higher education funding. The Browne Review was published on 12 October 2010 and contained proposals to remove the cap on tuition fees. The resulting debate on the proposals sparked protests from students opposed to any rise in tuition fees. Despite these protests the government won a vote in the House of Commons which would result in universities eventually being able to charge students up to £9,000 a year for the annual tuition costs of students. Sixty four universities have announced their intention to charge the full £9,000 allowed by the government from 2012.

Following devolution, tuition fees were first abolished in Scotland and replaced with charge after graduation - the graduate endowment - to help pay for tuition. The endowment system itself was later abolished so that all students domiciled and studying at Scottish universities did not have to pay any fees towards their tuition costs. The Welsh Assembly, because of its limited powers in comparison with their Scottish counterparts, remained with the caps imposed on the level of tuition as established by the United Kingdom government. However, whereas the United Kingdom government chose to replace means-tested maintenance grants for living expenses whilst at university with a student loan scheme, the Welsh Assembly re-introduced these for Welsh students either studying in Wales or anywhere else in the United Kingdom.