University tuition fees could be cut to £8,500, say sources

Sources say that high-level discussions have been held in Whitehall over controversial proposals to cut university tuition fees in the United Kingdom from £9,250 (US$12,700) to £8,500 (US$11,700), write Sally Weale and Rowena Mason for The Guardian.

Officials from No 10, the Treasury and the Department for Education are said to have been engaged in ‘lively’ talks about a possible cut to fees but have struggled to thrash out an agreement in time for the chancellor’s spending review.

An announcement on changes to higher education is long overdue following the 2019 Augar review of post-18 education, which recommended that tuition fees should be cut from £9,250 to £7,500 as part of a radical overhaul of university funding. According to one source, the Treasury has been pushing for a tuition fee cut to £8,500, which would reduce the amount undergraduates have to borrow and in turn the amount of unpaid debt picked up by the state if they fail to repay the fees within 30 years.
Full report on The Guardian site