FACT CHECK
KEEPING POLITICIANS HONEST
THE Conservative Party Conference was dominated by talk of Theresa May’s future as leader but she also found time to make a number of major policy announcements.
Before the event began in Manchester, the Prime Minister revealed the Government would cap the cost of tuition fees in England at £9250 a year, with students not having to start paying back loans until they earn more than £25,000.
In an interview with the BBC’s Andrew Marr last Sunday, May defended tuition fees against Labour’s pledge to scrap them.
CLAIM The policy [tuition fees] has meant there are more students going to university. Prime Minister Theresa May, October 1
EVIDENCE Control over tuition fees is split between the devolved nations within the UK, with Scotland having ended fees for higher education in 2008 while Wales allow universities to charge fees – of which around half can be paid through grants.
England has maintained tuition fees, which have now been capped at £9250.
The fees were first introduced in the UK by Tony Blair’s Labour government in 1998.
The policy has caused controversy since it was brought in and was the focus of renewed protests after the ConservativeLib Dem coalition announced plans to almost treble the annual cost in 2010.
The 2017 general election brought the issue of fees to the forefront, with Labour announcing in their manifesto that they planned to end the charges.
May, right, suggested that the election – where her party lost their majority – had been the catalyst for the tuition fees freeze and extension of loan repayment threshold.
In her interview with Marr, she claimed that tuition fees had resulted in more people going to university. It is true that the proportion of people in England going to university is increasing. The participation rate for higher education measures 17 to 30-year-old first-time entrants living in England. Latest Government stats show 49 per cent of English people are estimated to participate in higher education by the age of 30. This has increased from 42 per cent in 2006-07 (when the methodology changed) and 39 per cent in 1999-00 after a slight dip when tuition fees were first introduced. Apart from a fluctuation in 2011-12 and 2012-13, coinciding with the introduction of a higher tuition fee cap, there has been a steady rise in those going to university.
A Department for Education report concluded the 2011-12 increase was down to more students choosing not to defer entry (taking a gap year) to avoid the increase in fees, with a consequent fall in entry the next year.
Applications and acceptance into university (measured by UCAS) have also increased consistently since tuition fees were introduced.
The proportion of 18-year-old students entering in 2016-17 (the latest UCAS statistics) was higher than any other year for those in England, Wales and Scotland. To assess May’s claim that tuition fees have caused an increase in student numbers, we can look to Scotland, where fees have been abolished.
Here, the participation rate stands at just under 56 per cent, seven points higher than England.
There is a lower percentage of Scots entering university on the UCAS measure. As many students attend further education (FE) colleges – an important component of provision in Scotland and not recruited through UCAS.
Applicant rates for 18-year-olds have also been broadly increasing across the UK since 2012, although this stalled in 2017.
University entry rates for students from poorer backgrounds have broadly increased, but there is still a significant equality gap.
Those in the same situation in England (measured by whether they qualified for free school meals) are now 80 per cent more likely to enter higher education than in 2006.
Scotland has a lower rate of students from the most disadvantaged backgrounds entering university. This can partially be explained by the wider provision of FE colleges, as well as the cap on university places, with a recent report from the Sutton Trust saying Scottish attempts to widen access have had only “partial success”.