Universities call for a rise in student fees

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Higher education minister David Lammy has refused to confirm where the government stands in the debate over raising student tuition fees.

He told the BBC that the government would not be drawn into the arguments over top-up fees until the completion of an independent review later this year.

His comments came as the BBC published a survey of universities in England and Wales, which found that a majority of vice chancellors want to be able to charge higher fees.

Two thirds of vice-chancellors polled said they should be allowed to charge £5,000 a year in tuition fees, above the current cap of just over £3,000.

The government is required by law to review tuition fees this year to discover if top-up fees, introduced three years ago, are working.

The Daily Mail reported that a potential fee increase could see some students with debts of £50,000 which they would be paying off until their 50s.

But a report from Universities UK forecasts that the number of students would remain steady even if charges are raised to £5,000 a year.

Lammy told BBC Radio 4 that the survey had only covered 47 per cent of vice chancellors.

"The cohort of students that are actually the first group to have paid fees have actually not yet got out of university," he said.

"Let's wait until they get out of university so that can be part of the review."

Pressed further on the government's position, Lammy stated: "You are pushing me because this is the BBC and you'd like banner headlines that we are going to put up fees and I am not prepared to give them to you."

He defended universities by saying that it was "right" that they prepare for the independent review later in the year.

"I don't want to get into the scenarios that will rightly begin in the independent review," Lammy stated.

But he added that the government's position remained as in 2004, when fees were capped at £3,000.

"That is that there are bursaries to support the poorer students and two-thirds of students currently get full or partial support," he said.

"And we will absolutely look at this issue again but after an independent review."

And Professor Rick Trainor, president of Universities UK, explained to the BBC that fees over £7,000 a year could stop students from going to university.

Trainor claimed that universities were being underfunded at the moment and insisted that the Universities UK research was an independent analysis of the situation.

"I need to make clear that the report that Universities UK released yesterday is not a salvo in the campaign to raise fees," he said.

"It is attempting to inform the debate which the forthcoming government review will make necessary. It is not taking a stand in favour of one particular option or another."

But he suggested that universities "do not necessarily" want tuition fees to go up.

Trainor explained: "The key point is that by whatever means they need more resources to come into the system in order to cope with the rising expectations of our students, their families and their employers, and also rising international competition."

And he added that student support arrangements were "very important" to those from low incomes.

But the education secretary when top-up fees were introduced in 2003, Charles Clarke, warned that increasing fees would be difficult during an economic downturn.

He said: "There is no doubt that in the recession there will be a lot of resistance to thinking the fee level should be significantly raised. And I'd understand that doubt."

Meanwhile, the newspapers on Tuesday reported that Cambridge University has announced that three As at A-level will no longer be enough to gain admission to the university.

The Times says that the move could breed "educational elitism" as the top institution demands at least one new A* grade from sixth form pupils.

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