Which universities are raising tuition fees in 2012?

This article takes a look at the planned increase in university tuition fees in the UK in 2012. For information on what specific universities are planning to charge take a look at our, regularly updated, student fees table below.

In December 2010 MP's voted to give universities the option to raise their tuition fees to up to £9000 a year from 2012 onwards. By early March the universities of Exeter, Cambridge and Imperial College London had already stated they intend to charge the full amount for student fees in 2012 whilst Oxford announced they will charge at least £8000.

The announcement that universities will be able to charge £5650 more than is currently being charged, has led to worries that prospective students from lower income households will not apply to the universities charging the full £9000. This has led to the Office for Fair Access (Offa) advising that these universities double their efforts to widen access to students by spending an annual average of £900 per student grants, that's up from the current £400.

It was announced on 20th April that all of England's 123 universities and university colleges, are raising their tuition fees to at least £6000 a year in 2012, with some intending to charge the full £9000 for certain courses. Universities of Bristol, Bradford, Hull, Oxford Brooks and East London, have all recently announced they intend to charge the full £9000.

This leaves the Treasury with the issue of funding the huge initial student loan payments that the government provides for every student, only to be repaid once the student has graduated and is earning over £21000 a year (for more information on paying back student loans take a look at our Student loan repayment calculator). To tackle this Ed Miliband, Labour leader, has warned that at least a 10% cut will have to be made to places available for undergraduates.

According to The Guardian the number of applicants for universities has already decreased, and The Times states that the number of students working abroad or taking a gap year before university has gone down by half.

Offa will fully announce in July which universities' requests to raise their tuition fees have been accepted, and will commence from autumn 2012.

There are many issues raised by the increase in tuition fees that we at Save The Student have thought about. To begin with, many universities feel that if they do not charge the full £9,000 then they may end up looking like a 'cheap' university and therefore gain less applicants. All of the universities will set their charges based on what they feel is their own worth. If a university was to charge £6,000 then they may feel as though they are undervaluing themselves to prospective applicants.

However, with this in mind, just because a university may charge £9,000 as opposed to the £6,000 minimum it does not mean that they could be worse for studying at. Many universities specialise in certain subjects and if the subject that you want to study is well established at a university that charges the lower amount then it may best to go there. It's all about weighing up your options.

Below you can see a table of the Universities that have announced how much they will charge for university tuition fees in 2012. It is useful to keep in mind that the fees may be different in each individual circumstance and bursaries may be available for certain students as stated above. Also, many universities are planning on differing the prices of certain courses compared to others.

Search for your University and if it is not on here check back for the updated version in July when the 2012 tuition fees are fully released.