MPs demand more detail about Kingston University £9,000 tuition fees (From Surrey Comet)

MPs demand more detail about Kingston University £9,000 tuition fees

8:00am Sunday 10th July 2011 in News By Martin George

MPs have asked for more detail about Kingston University’s plans to charge some students maximum tuition fees.

It in April it announced degrees would cost between £8,500 and £9,000 a year, but it would spend more than £7m a year helping poorer students.

The Government had said institutions should only charge more than £6,000 a year in “exceptional circumstances”.

Kingston’s MPs Edward Davey and Zac Goldsmith met Vice Chancellor Julius Weinberg on Friday, July 1.

Mr Davey said he gave them a high level explanation of its proposals, but wanted further discussions to find out more detail.

Mr Davey said: “I am clear it would be better if the fees were lower. The question is whether or not their assumptions will turn out to be the case.

“If they continue to have the student numbers they currently have then they will be setting their fees levels too high.”

Prof Weinberg said the Government’s higher education white paper, published last week, meant the university would lose student numbers even before the effect of higher fees were considered.

He said: “it is extremely unlikely that student numbers will exceed that necessary for the university to be sustainable. The university needs to generate sufficient income to be sustainable – we set our fees to do that.”

Student union president Chris Dingle said: “It’s not a fair level of fees, but that’s not the university’s fault.

“I understand why Ed is saying what he is saying, but it could have been different if certain MPs had voted differently.”

The Office for Fair Access will announce next week whether it has accepted Kingston’s proposals.