Students could have £9,250 tuition fees cut next year

STUDENTS could see their fees cut in 2019 as part of a Government review of university funding expected to be announced next week.

The review will examine whether youngsters receive value for money in return for building up debts of up to £57,000 during their degrees.

Officials are expected to consider cutting or freezing the £9,250 fees, and lowering interest rates for repayments, which now stand at up to 6.1 per cent.

The Prime Minister will make the announcement on Monday as part of a wider review of education for over-18s. Funding for vocational courses and apprenticeships will also be looked at in a bid to tackle skills shortages.

The move comes following fears that rising fees may have lost the Conservahave tives votes in the last election as Labour had pledged to scrap them. At the autumn party conference, Theresa May said a review of student finance would show ‘we have listened and we have learned’.

She said: ‘We want everyone to have the opportunity to benefit from studying more after they leave school... But today, young people take on a huge amount of debt to do so. And if we’re honest, some don’t know what they get from it in return.’

Nick Timothy, Mrs May’s former chief of staff, claimed earlier this year that former education secretary Justine Greening had previously blocked the review. Calculations by the London Economics consultancy firm found that cutting fees down to £6,000 would take more than £3billion a year away from universities, and mainly benefit higher earning graduates, who would pay less back in student loans.

Yesterday, higher education

‘Huge amount of debt’

leaders urged the Government to develop a fees system that ‘feels fairer to students’.

Universities UK, which represents vice chancellors, said many youngsters were struggling with living costs and suggested bringing back maintenance grants for poor students. These were scrapped in 2016 and replaced by loans, but this means disadvantaged students graduate with more debt than everyone else. However, the lobbying group warned that any changes should not leave universities short of funding.

Chief executive Alistair Jarvis said: ‘Our universities offer a world-renowned quality of education and develop the skilled graduates our economy and society needs.

‘This can only be maintained with stable and sustainable funding, which the current system provides.’

A spokesman for the Russell Group, which represents 24 of the top universities, added: ‘Any changes to the current funding model need to be fair and affordable to students, while still meeting the needs of taxpayers and universities in providing students with a high- quality education and experience.

‘Finding the right balance is likely to involve making a series of difficult trade-offs.’

Over the last few years, the average graduate debt has increased to £46,000, and to £57,000 for students from less well-off households.

The debts are repaid by taking 9 per cent of graduate income above £25,000, with any remaining debts 30 years after graduation being scrapped.