London, April 10: The British government is losing its grip on its tuition fee policy as findings show almost two out of three universities have aimed for the maximum £9,000 a year.
The government had earlier said universities will charge more than £6,000 a year only in “exceptional circumstances”.
However, a research results showed 65 percent of universities will levy £9,000 for certain courses as half of all higher education centers are to introduce the maximum fee levels for all their courses in 2012.
While dizzying fee levels up from the current maximum £3,290 a year raise serious questions about how students could cope, there are also other concerns that the coalition may face major difficulties to find the extra £1 billion claimed to be needed to fund student loans in the next four years.
“The Tory-led Government has completely lost control of its fees policy. With more universities charging £9,000, the Government is set to have a big funding gap it will need to fill. This is unnecessary, unfair and unsustainable,” said shadow business secretary John Denham.
The government raised the tuition fee cap after halting all state funding to universities so that higher education centers can fill in the resulting gap in their budgets.
The coalition also introduced new student loans policies that allowed a payback only when students earnings reached an annual £21,000 level.
The treasury has claimed the fees would stand at an average £7,500 a year in the long run, but the BBC found in a study of half of England’s universities that 35 out of 54 are planning to charge the maximum fee for some of all of their courses.
The survey also found that 27 will charge the £9,000 a year for all their degree subjects. That means the average tuition fee will stand at £8,536.
——–Agencies