Fees must rise 'to protect quality' (From This is Hampshire)
When news happens, text SDE and your photos or videos to 80360. Or contact us by email and phone.
Winchester University to increase tuition fees to £8,500
9:52am Wednesday 20th April 2011 in News
Last year’s Student Union-organised protest against higher tuition fees
Winchester University is to charge students almost the maximum when higher tuition fees start next year.
It is setting its fees for 2012 at £8,500 a year for undergraduate students.
But the university is investing in widening access and supporting poorer students.
It plans to make major investment and yesterday announced fee waivers of up to £6,000 for poorer students who might not initially be able to afford to attend university.
There will also be funds to spend on outreach programmes, such as going into schools to encourage pupils that university could be for them.
A special hardship fund, used to help out students who find themselves with sudden financial difficulties, will also be made bigger, while more effort will be placed on encouraging children who have spent time in care to consider university as part of their futures.
University chiefs also plan to work at boosting the employability of students, by offering skills workshops, encouraging volunteering in the community and work experience placements.
The announcement follows Southampton University’s revelation that it will charge the maximum of £9,000 next year, while Southampton Solent will levy £7,800.
Joy Carter, vice chancellor at Winchester, said: “The university is a values-driven institution focused on providing its students with highquality teaching underpinned by academic research, excellent learning and personal development opportunities and leading student satisfaction.
“Widening access to higher education has always been a key priority and the university attracts high numbers of students from under-represented backgrounds. The planned expansion of our support packages and activities for widening access will help ensure that students are not deterred from entering into higher education.”
Prof Carter added: “The university has set its fees at a level that recognises the significant cuts in government funding and protects the quality of our teaching and the overall student experience.”
Seb Miell, the president of the student union, was abroad and unavailable for comment.
Comments(6)
StEmmosfire
says...
10:56am Wed 20 Apr 11
Paramjit Bahia
says...
11:55am Wed 20 Apr 11
Fees were introduced by New Labour branch of Tories for turning places of higher education into bushiness and rather than spending on educating people using the money on bombs for bankers and their super rich friends
.
Now the Con merchants of ConDem Coalition, Lib-Dem part of which got elected by telling lies, has put the fees out of the reach of many British students, so only kids of rich parents from overseas can afford those
.
It has nothing to do with quality of education but everything to do with making profits out of foreign student market, with which universities will fill the places, which are out of reach of our own youngsters
.
Shame on all three main branches of the Tories (CONservatives, New Labour and professional liars LibDems) for transforming higher education into glorified multi national companies.
Wasserstoftsbombe
says...
12:00pm Wed 20 Apr 11
Poppy22
says...
7:10pm Wed 20 Apr 11
StEmmosfire wrote:Aren't the Uni's just applying at this time, rather than the fees being agreed? It's the Uni's that are greedy but let's hope Cameron/Clegg come down hard on most of the greedy ones.
Just shows the lies told by Nick Clegg and Co that it would be vary rare that a Uni will charge the top fee's, yeah right - you stictched all the students up that voted for you.
The downside of Winchester subsidising the "poor" is that the definition of poor these days is usually someone whose family is on benefits and there are plenty of people struggling to find food and petrol, and pay the bills, who aren't eligible for benefits. And for others, perhaps they'll have to make do with one or two less plasma TVs, computers, i-phones for everyone in the family, etc etc.
cardinalfang
says...
8:09pm Wed 20 Apr 11
Wasserstoftsbombe wrote:Since when did it make sense to only support poor students and not the bright ones?
In years to come companies will be recruiting graduates from overseas as they will be the only people to have the skills needed.
.
What is going to be more useful to this country, the ones who scraped into university or the ones that worked **** hard to get there and have the brains to get top grades?
.
Why should being poor be part of the equation? When they leave, they all have the same opportunity to earn good salaries presumably (unless of course employers start regarding the degrees of poorer students as 2nd rate ones because of Clegg's interfering)
.
The other side of the coin of course is that if you charge a lot for university fees, then expect to get sued when students don't get the grades they expected, as is already the case in the USA.
.
All of the logic I've heard applied to the fee debate from the government is obviously flawed and naïve, blaming the middle class kids for sponging off the taxes paid by working class people, making places easier for poorer students without considering that they may drop out and waste the place, claiming that people with degrees earn 100K more and then ignoring the additional tax they pay obviously then funds their education. The list goes on.
.
The bottom line is that the government is in the back pocket of banking and big business, cheap overseas graduates will be hired in place of students who have loans to pay off and so require higher salaries, the banks will charge the government for underwriting the student loans, etc, etc.
.
Corrupt to the core. Government, both local and national is not run for the benefit of the voters, but the people in government and their masters in the city.
Condor Man says...
10:34am Wed 20 Apr 11