Tuition Fees 2012

Attending a university to study a degree for 3 or 4 years will be one of the largest investments you ever make, so it’s important to know exactly how much it is going to cost you and what financial help is available.

As many people will have heard, tuition fees are on the rise for those starting university in 2012 due to cuts in teaching budgets.

However, the new changes will ONLY affect those undergraduates starting their course in 2012 - undergraduates already on their degree course or starting in 2011 will stay on the current system.

In this guide, we aim to answer any questions you may have about the increase in fees and how it will affect prospective undergraduates in 2012.

How much will I have to pay?

The government is allowing universities to charge up to £9,000 per year for undergraduate courses, which raises the cap on tuition fees from £3,290 to £9,000.

Universities that want to charge more than £6,000 will have to make efforts to encourage students from poorer backgrounds to apply, e.g. bursaries, summer schools and outreach programmes.

How will I pay the fees?

You will be loaned the money to pay the fees by the government. You will not have to pay the fees up-front and will only have to start paying them back once you graduate and are earning £21,000 or more. This threshold will rise in line with inflation.

Each month you will have to pay back 9% of your income above this threshold.

The subsidised rate of interest at which you will make the repayments will rise above the current rate of 1.5%.

Under what is known as a 'progressive tapering' system, the interest rate will rise from 0 for incomes of £21,000, to 3% plus inflation (RPI) for incomes higher than £41,000.

If you do not repay your debt 30 years after you have graduated, it will be wiped out.

What about grants and loans?

In 2012, maintenance grants will increase from £2,906 to £3,250 if you are from a household earning less than £25,000.

A partial grant is available if you come from a household that earns £42,000 or more.

What about means-tested loans?

These will continue, and while loan amounts have increased the threshold for those receiving the most generous ones have been lowered from £50,000 to around £42,000.

So how much will a 3 year degree cost me?

If the university you attend charges £6,000 a year in tuition fees, you may expect to leave university with around £30,000 of debt.

If your university charges £9,000 a year for tuition fees, you can expect to leave university with around £38,000 of debt.

Both of these estimates include your living costs for 3 years.

For half of all graduates, there will basically be a 9% graduate tax for 30 years as they will not have earned enough to pay off their debts by the cut-off point.

I’m from a low-income family – will there be any extra help available to me?

As mentioned earlier, universities that want to charge more than £6,000 a year in tuition fees will have to take measures in order to recruit students from poorer families, as well as support while they are studying for their degree.

This will be in the form of means-tested bursaries and fee waivers, which universities will provide under their own individual schemes. We recommend prospective undergraduates from low-income backgrounds check carefully what each university you are interested in is offering.

So when will these proposals be put into practice?

September 2012 – if you are a student applying in 2011 for a deferred entry in 2012, you will have to pay the increased fees. However, if you have already started your course, or are starting this year in September/October, you will not have to pay the higher fees.

What about Scottish and Welsh universities?

If you are a Scottish student applying to a Scottish university, you will not be charged any fees.

If you are from elsewhere in the UK applying to university in Scotland, you will have to pay £1,280, or £2,895 if studying medicine.

To ensure Scottish universities aren’t seen as a cheap option, and to protect places for Scottish students, Scottish universities will be able to set their own fees for students from the rest of the UK from 2012-13.

Fees will range from £1,800 to an upper limit of £9,000. All Scottish universities have voluntarily agreed to this upper fee limit. However, legislation will be introduced to make this the most they are legally allowed to charge from 2013-14.

Despite the increase, Scottish university fees are still expected to be, on average, lower than in England.

In Wales, funding for universities has been slashed by 12%. Fees in Wales will also rise to up to £9,000, but the Welsh Assembly will meet the extra cost of Welsh students studying at a UK university.

The system in Northern Ireland is currently under review but is unlikely to change very much.

Where can I find more information?

Martin Lewis at moneysavingexpert.com has a really good guide on student loans in 2012. It breaks down everything you need to know, e.g. interest rates, how much you will pay, tax, etc. into simple facts so you can see exactly how the rise in fees will affect you.

You can also find out more info on student finance for 2012 at the Directgov website.