Just four universities out of 115 plan to charge tuition fees below £9,000 limit
Just a handful of universities are planning to charge tuition fees below £9,000, a survey has revealed.
Just a handful of universities are planning to charge tuition fees below £9,000, a survey has revealed.
Out of 115 universities in England, all but four will charge the full permitted fee for all undergraduate courses to home and EU students in 2016-17.
The research by thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk found that only the University of Chichester, London Metropolitan University, Buckinghamshire New University and the University of Sunderland offered courses with fees below the £9,000 limit.
Fees start at £5,500 for at the University of Chichester but climb to £12,444 at the private University of Buckingham. All other English universities have a cap of £9,000.
Universities in Scotland will continue offer fees from £1,820 for first-time Scottish and EU undergraduates in the new academic year.
The two universities in Northern Ireland charge £3,925 for students from the province, but fees for students from the rest of the UK are higher.
Jo Johnson, the universities minister, announced in July that maximum tuition fees at English universities will rise to £9,250 a year from September 2017. However, only a small number of institutions have so far announced that they will increase fees to the new cap.
Dr Bernard Kingston, chairman of thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk, said: "With almost all English universities now charging the full £9,000 fee, the competitive market is no longer based on fees, but on other factors such as student satisfaction, employment prospects and facilities.
"However, these fees will be paid by the cohort of students immediately affected by the withdrawal of maintenance grants and their replacement with loans. This means that scholarships and bursaries intended to offset the impact of higher tuition fees on access by under-represented groups will play an even more important part.
"There is now a greater than ever need for students to have access to multiple sources so that they can reach a balanced decision in the light of the best possible information."