6th April 2011 9:00
By Blue Tutors
Cambridge University has announced that it will charge the maximum amount allowable for tuition fees: £9,000 a year. The BBC has reported that the vote was by members of the Regent House, and 1,387 were in favour of maximum tuition fees, with 416 people voting against. This follows the same announcement by a number of other UK universities; Oxford, Imperial, Durham, Exeter, Essex, Surrey, Manchester, Warwick, Aston, UCL, Lancaster and Birmingham have all said that they will charge maximum tuition fees.
A spokesperson from Cambridge qualified the statement by assuring students that they would receive improved financial support from 2012. Cambridge University will spend £9m a year on support for undergraduates, in addition to the government’s grant and loan schemes. They will also increase the amount spent on outreach programs from £2.25m to £3.25m, to encourage students from poorer backgrounds to apply to Cambridge.
Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, Vice Chancellor of Cambridge University, said that no students should be discouraged from attending university, or be forced to leave, because of financial difficulties. He added that Cambridge has one of the highest undergraduate retention rates of any UK university, and that Cambridge graduates benefit from an extraordinary level of employability.