Finance 2012: A message from our Students' Union President and Vice-Chancellor
Dear Students,
As we are sure you are aware, as of 2012, government funding to higher education is being significantly reduced, and universities will be allowed to charge tuition fees of between £6,000 and £9,000 per year.
After much research, debate and consultation, Oxford Brookes University has announced today that it intends to charge £9,000 a year for tuition costs from September 2012. One thing we would like to make very clear is that as a current student, the new fees system will not affect you, but we want all of our current students to be aware of future changes and our reasons behind them.
In a similar way to how the fees system currently works, the new fees will not be paid up-front, but will instead be covered by a government-funded loan that will only be repaid once the student is earning over £21,000.
The key focus of this decision was to enable the university to do more for our students than retain the status quo. Charging £9,000 tuition fees will enable the university to do far more than just recover lost government funding – and instead the additional income will be spent on improving the student experience – through faster developments to Brookes’ facilities, more high-quality contact hours and increased student support.
Oxford Brookes is still highly committed to ensuring that students from all backgrounds are able to access higher education, and are proposing a system of fee waivers and bursaries to ensure that our university remains accessible. Students with families with low incomes will benefit from fee waivers of up to £2,500, and the average cost to students of a Brookes degree is estimated to be around £8,000 a year – far lower than the “ticket price” for new students.
In addition to this, the bursary system will remain in place, with increased support for those from the lowest income backgrounds, who will be able to apply for a bursary of up to £2,000 a year towards their living costs whilst studying.
The announcements today do not just reflect a decision on price, but a new strategy which intends to make higher education accessible to all – not just through the plans you have just read, but also through reducing our future intake of on-campus students in order to extend our provision of higher education through partnership colleges.
More information about the decisions we have taken and what they will mean to new students is available here on the Brookes website, and if you have any questions please do contact your SU president Lucie via obsu.president@brookes.ac.uk.
These decisions have not been taken lightly, and we have every confidence that they were the best to be taken in the new funding climate, which will offer the most opportunities to students and further enhance the reputation of Oxford Brookes University and the quality of your degree.
Best wishes,
Professor Janet Beer
Vice-Chancellor
Lucie Acraman
Students’ Union President