University fees ‘would have put off Sheffield students’

A third (33%) say they would have been turned off by fees of £6,000, according to the survey by High Fliers Research.

The poll questioned 12,658 final year UK students at 24 English universities, each of which are expected to charge the maximum £9,000 for courses from 2012.

The findings reveal the extent to which the Government’s plans to triple fees from around £3,000 to a maximum of £9,000 next year could affect students.

Students at Loughborough, Sheffield, Lancaster, Liverpool and Reading were the most concerned, with more than three fifths at each saying they would not have started their degree if they had to pay the maximum fee. But students attending Oxford and Cambridge were the least concerned by the fee hike, with 25% and 27% saying they would be put off by fees of £9,000.

The survey also reveals that female undergraduates are more likely to have been turned off university by maximum fees than their male peers. And £9,000 fees were also more likely to put off students who scored three B grades or less at A-level, as well as those studying languages, arts or humanities subjects.

State school pupils were also more likely to say they would not have gone into higher education if they had to pay £9,000. Some 59% of those that attended comprehensive school along with 51% that attended grammar school said they would have been put off, compared to 39% of those that were educated privately.

Managing director of High Fliers Research, Martin Birchall said: “Today’s university students are used to contributing to the cost of their education with tuition fees of up to £3,290 a year in England - and those graduating this summer are particularly well-placed to understand the value of a degree in the graduate employment market.

“But our research with the ‘Class of 2011’ shows very clearly that many of the top university undergraduates, particularly those originally from state schools or colleges, would have been put off doing a degree if their tuition fees had been £9,000 a year - the level that most leading institutions are expecting to charge in future.

“This highlights the invidious position that universities have been put in by the Government’s decision to cut funding for undergraduate teaching from 2012 and replace it with substantially higher student tuition fees.”