Students may graduate with huge debts

Government Heralds End To Free Higher Education

The Government has confirmed it intends to end the principle of free higher education for all. In future, most students will have to pay an annual tuition fee of just over £1,000, in addition to loans for living expenses.

The decision - which is designed to ease the funding difficulties facing universities - will be announced later this week when the Dearing review of higher education is published. It had been leaked widely last week.

However, the full fee will only be charged to students from families with an income above £34,000 a year. Below that, the fee will be reduced on a sliding scale. Those with incomes under £16,000 will not have to pay at all.

Well-off parents, who are already expected to pay towards students living costs, will not have to pay any more to cover the fees because the current student loan scheme will be extended to the new tuition fee. New graduates will only have to start repaying the loan after reaching an income threshold and payments can be spread over a much longer period than now.

In another radical step, the Government will end the payment of grants for living costs to less well-off students. These students will be eligible for bigger loans to compensate.

This means that some students could end three-year degrees with debts totalling over £10,000.

Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats' Education Spokesman, Don Foster, has said that one in eight students are leaving their courses because they do not have enough money to live on. He told ITV's GMTV programme that it would be a great pity if tuition fees were introduced. Instead, the state and employers should be contributing more towards higher education funding.

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