Row over universities planning tuition fee increases next year

Under proposals still to be laid before Parliament, institutions offering high-quality teaching would be able to raise fees in line with inflation in autumn 2017.

The universities of Durham, Kent and Royal Holloway are already listing tuition fees on their websites as £9,250 for students starting undergraduate courses next September.

There are references to the fee changes being subject to “inflationary change” or subject to Government confirmation.

Sixth-formers intending to go to university next year will begin applying for courses after the summer break.

Liberal Democrat education spokesman John Pugh described this as “disgraceful arrogance from some universities”.

Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union (UCU) said: “Universities advertising increased fees before the law has even been changed is just another blight on the sorry debacle that is the Government’s plan for higher education.”

Plans to tie teaching quality to tuition fees were first announced by then Chancellor George Osborne in last year’s summer budget.

The Government later announced it planned to create a new “teaching excellence framework” to measure teaching quality in universities.

During yesterday’s Commons debate on a Higher Education and Research Bill going through parliament, Education Secretary Justine Greening said: “What we are saying to high-quality providers is you can access fees up to an inflation-linked maximum fee cap if, and only if, you can demonstrate that you are providing high-quality teaching and you have an agreed access and participation plan in place.”

Ms Greening said the Bill will allow fee caps to be set below the maximum level in order to reflect varying levels of teaching quality.