In a week when the prime minister finally announced the ‘Review of Post-18 Education and Funding’ and suggested the possibility of tuition fees that vary for different institutions and courses, the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) has published a report on the topic. The report, ‘Differential tuition fees: Horses for courses? uses data from the YouthSight poll and sampled 1,019 full-time undergraduates in November 2017.
The survey results reveal:
- around two-thirds of students (63%) think full-time undergraduate courses should all have the same fees while one-in-three disagree (33%)
- when asked to state a preference, students prefer higher fees for ‘courses that cost more to teach’ (57%) than ‘courses that lead to higher earnings’ (17%) or ‘courses at more famous universities’ (7%)
- when questioned about the possibility of introducing higher fees for some subjects, more than half of students (52%) say higher fees might be justified for Medicine but just 7% think they could be justified for Arts (such as History or English) and only 6% for Modern Languages
- when questioned about the possibility of introducing lower fees for some subjects, 39% say lower fees might be justified for Arts (such as History or English), but just 9% think they could be justified for Law and only 8% for Physics
- most students (59 per cent) oppose lower fees for poorer students, although a substantial minority (38 per cent) back the idea (HEPI, 2018)
Since the 1990s the concept of introducing differential fees has played a role in higher education policymaking. However, the survey concludes that nearly two-thirds of students agree all courses should have the same fees. Nick Hillman, Director of HEPI continues by suggesting that supporters of the policy are “deeply split” on who should actually pay more.