Leeds Met trebles student fees to £8,500 a year

The former polytechnic has become the first of a group of newer universities to announce the amount they plan to charge when the new system comes into effect in 2012.

If it is approved by the Government it will mean the institutions fees will have more than quadrupled in the space of just three years.

Under its former vice chancellor Simon Lee the university had been the lowest charging in England with fees of £2,000 a year.

Fees were brought in line with the rest of the country last year and are now set to rise to £8,500 when universities hike up their charges to cope with a massive cut in their teaching funding from central Government.

Leeds Met’s chairman of the board of governors Lord Woolmer said: “We are totally committed to providing a high quality student experience.

“In the face of huge cuts in Government funding we face difficult and tough choices. We shall continue to secure cost savings but it is essential that we remain able to invest in high quality university education and facilities for our students. We have a proud history of widening participating and will continue to support access into higher education and ensure that our students are successful at university and after they graduate.” Leeds Met is the first member of the Million+ group of newer universities to announce the amount it intends to charge.

It is also the first in Yorkshire to set a figure below the maximum £9,000 allowed. Leeds plans to charge £9,000-a-year while Sheffield has said it is considering charging less and Huddersfield has ruled out charging £9,000-a-year.

Elsewhere Aston, Birmingham, Cambridge, Durham, Essex, Exeter, Imperial College London, Lancaster, Manchester, Oxford, Surrey, University College London and Warwick have said they want to charge the maximum yearly tuition fee.

MPs voted to raise the cap of fees last year to between £6,000 and £9,000 amid widespread student protests.

Universities which plan to charge more than £6,000 have to demonstrate the extra support they plan to give students from the poorest backgrounds and Ministers said universities would only be allowed to charge the full amount in “exceptional circumstances”

All fee levels need to be approved by the Office for Fair Access.

Leeds Metropolitan has about 30,000 students and 3,000 staff.