Students to face £14,000 annual tuition fees

Students could face staged fee increases of up to £1,000 a year as universities move towards charging the full cost of degree courses.

At the same time, 'free' student loans with a zero per cent real terms interest rate would be scrapped.

The committee which has been put in charge of reviewing student fees within the Government was originally expected to agree to raise the current £3,225 a year fee cap to £5,000 or £7,000. However the latest news to have emerged from this committee is that they could allow universities to charge the full cost of degree courses. This would mean that students on arts and humanities courses at highly ranked Universities could be charged up to £7,000 a year in tuition fees, whereas students studying science subjects could face annual charges of up to £14,000.

Wes Streeting, president of the National Union of Students, said any fee rises 'would lead to students choosing courses on the basis of cost rather than suitability', and students have said the removal of the fee cap is a 'nightmare scenario'.

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