Tuition fees should be reduced to £7,500, says government review

By Maddy Russell, News Editor

The Augar Review has recommended reducing tuition fees after a year long investigation by the Economic Affair Committee.

A government-commissioned publication, titled 'Treating Students Fairly', has recommended that university tuition fees should be reduced to £7,500 and that maintenance grants for poorer students should be reinstated.

It has called for a reduction in the maximum tuition fee amount from £9,250 to £7,500, starting from the 2021/22 academic year.

The review has also recommended that maintenance grants, which were scrapped in 2016, should be brought back in order to support poorer students.

In exchange for lowering tuition fees, students would be expected to pay back loans for another decade. This would mean that instead of unpaid student debt being cancelled 30 years after graduation, repayments would continue for 40 years.

According to the suggested plans, repayment thresholds for loans would also be reduced to graduate earnings of £23,000 or above, rather than the current £25,725.

Graduates would continue to be charged interest on all student loans, but at a lower rate estimated to be around 1.5 per cent. At present, this is 6.3 per cent.

Any changes to the current structure of student finance would be subject to approval from Parliament.

Prime Minister Theresa May has expressed her support for the proposals, but has acknowledged that any final decisions will have to be made by the new government in its spending review.

Featured Image credit: Good Free Photos / Unsplash

Do you think the recommendations would make degrees better value for money?

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