Universities may reduce fees to win support on funding

The move comes in response to the Government’s announcement of incentives for institutions that charge lower fees.

Ministers announced in a White Paper this summer that English universities who charged £7,500 or lower would be able to bid for a share of 20,000 funded student places.

The Office For Fair Access (Offa) confirmed that 12 universities, all of whom were planning to charge over this threshold, had expressed an interest in reducing their fees.

Universities planning to charge over £6,000 had to submit “access agreements” to Offa setting out how they planned to support students and ensure that those from poorer homes were not priced out.

But these access agreements were submitted before the White Paper was published.

In light of the new proposals, a dozen institutions have approached Offa expressing an interest in submitting new agreements based on lower fees.

Offa has issued a guidance note to universities which states: “You may be considering measures to lower your institution’s net average fee, in order to bid for places under the new ‘core and margin’ system.

“This guidance note sets out how to make any resulting changes to your access agreement.”

Any university planning to make changes to their fee levels needs to submit a revised access agreement to Offa.

An Offa spokesman said that of the 12 universities who have expressed an interest in revising their agreements, “a couple” were planning on charging students towards £9,000 a year, but the majority had been planning to set fees at lower than £8,000 to £8,500.

It is understood that none of the universities are leading Russell Group institutions, and the majority are newer post-1992 universities.

Eric Thomas, the president of Universities UK, said changing fee levels would be a “complicated calculation” for universities, adding that institutions would need to move quickly if they wished to do so.

Students can begin applying from this week for university courses starting next autumn.