University fees blow as Cambridge plans to charge maximum £9,000

A report by the university’s working group on fees said they expected “most if not all” of Cambridge’s peers to charge the same annual amount from September 2012.

The president of the National Union of Students, Aaron Porter, warned that there would now be a rush among universities “to gain kudos” by charging the same level as Cambridge. The proposals published by Cambridge warned that even charging £9,000 a year would mean the university carrying the burden of a significant loss per student.

It warned that charging any less would be “fiscally irresponsible” and said: “To charge less than £9,000 might raise questions about our commitment to excellence since a reduced fee in the long term could only be sustained by reducing costs and hence quality.”

The announcement came as academics at Oxford University suggested it will need to raise fees to at least £8,000 a year to cope with major cuts in Government funding.

Last year MPs voted to increase the universities tuition fee cap from £3,920 to a basic level of £6,000 and a maximum of £9,000, amid violent student protests and controversy over Liberal Democrat support for the plan after the party previously called for fees to be abolished. Cuts to university teaching budgets of 80 per cent mean they will have to raise fees in order to retain the same level of income from the Government.

No universities in Yorkshire have announced how much they plan to charge from next year.