In 2012, the cap on English university fees for full-time undergraduates from the UK and EU was increased to £9,000 a year. Government loans mean that students don’t have to pay up-front and the repayment terms ensure that they are only repayable once graduates are earning a good salary. But £9,000 is a lot of money. Students – and their parents – are obviously interested in what universities do with these fees.
Responding to this, Universities UK, which represents the full range of universities, from the most ancient to some of the most modern, asked its members to explain the impact of fees. Drawing on the responses, Where student fees go illustrates some of the ways that universities are changing for the better as a result of the money students invest.
Examples given in the report show how universities have been focusing on things like providing financial support, improving teaching facilities and learning spaces, investing in staff and developing their campuses. For example, the University of Derby has been working on the total refurbishment of all its classrooms, upgrading AV and IT infrastructure to enable interactive learning. At the University of Liverpool, new interdisciplinary teaching labs bring students together to give them the opportunity to learn from related scientific subject areas, and work together on diagnostic and measurement skills. Several universities explained how they were improving staff:student ratios or investing in inspiring teaching.
In many cases universities described the way students were involved in decisions about the investments they have made. The University of Bedfordshire includes students on the steering groups for major projects, including one to develop their new £48 million library. At the University of Exeter, a budget scrutiny group gives students a role in shaping spending decisions. The group has addressed specific concerns raised by students, such as staff: student ratios and hidden course costs.
One of the strongest themes was investment in careers services. Universities know that the last few years have been difficult for graduates. A tough labour market increases the importance of being well prepared to link your degree to the kind of job you want to get. So universities across the country are putting some of the resources available as a result of tuition fee income into supporting students to prepare for a wide variety of careers, through placement schemes, internship programmes, help with starting businesses and bespoke services for graduates in particular subjects. One example of this is the University of the Arts, which focuses on helping graduates in creative arts disciplines prepare for self-employment, providing advice, mentoring, events and surgeries on topics like networking, pitching and business planning.
The report provides a snapshot of how universities are changing for the better in ways that would not have been possible without fee income. Since government teaching has been cut significantly since 2011, many universities explained that higher fees don’t actually mean that they have more money to spend. However, the expectation of a stable funding stream means that a significant number of universities have been able to borrow to fund investments that would be impossible out of existing resources.
Students are already seeing the benefits in better facilities, innovations and improvements in teaching and learning support. Student satisfaction, as measured by the National Student Survey is at a record high. Scores for teaching and learning rose by 7 percentage points from 80% to 87% between 2005 and 2013. This can partly be explained by the sustained effort many universities are making to address areas of perceived weakness in surveys like the NSS. For example, the University of Plymouth introduced a diagnostic tutorial in response to students who said they didn’t always understand the feedback they received and wanted it faster, while Oxford Brookes University changed the way they provided financial support in response to student views.
Fees rose to £9,000 just one year ago. But they are already making a difference.
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