Proposed tuition charges at Oxford between £3,500 and £9,000

15 March 2011

Oxford to spend 70% of real extra income on new support measures

First-year Oxford students from the lowest income households will have their tuition charges limited to £3,500 from 2012-13, repayable after graduation, under proposals approved on Monday 14 March by the University’s Council.

Annual charges would be between £3,500 and £9,000 (with lower charges achieved through waivers). Over £15m a year would be spent on financial support and access through tuition charge waivers, bursaries, and outreach work.

When cuts to public funding for teaching are taken into account, the real extra income to Oxford would amount to £10m a year, of which over £7m would be immediately reinvestedin new student support.

The proposals mean that first-year students from households with incomes under £16,000 would have a deferred charge of £3,500 – virtually the same as at present. For later years of their course, the deferred charge would be £6,000 per year. As at present, no tuition charges have to be paid upfront.

Students with household incomes up to £25,000 will have deferred charges of between £6,000 and £8,000 per year. All tuition charges are repayable only when a graduate is earning above a government-set threshold.

Oxford is also expanding its generous bursary provision, which assists students with living costs, and is designed to ensure that no student has to seek paid employment during term. First-year students from the lowest income households would receive a bursary of £4,300, dropping to £3,300 in subsequent years. Students up to household incomes of £42,000 would receive a bursary on a sliding scale.

Overall, the collegiate University will continue to meet out of its own resources almost half the real annual cost of £16,000 of educating an undergraduate at Oxford – a subsidy of around £77m a year benefitting every UK and EU student, regardless of background.

The Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, Professor Andrew Hamilton, said: “These proposals show the strength of our commitment to being accessible for all, and to attracting the very brightest students, whatever their circumstances. We have paid particular attention to concerns about debt aversion among potential students from the lowest income backgrounds. Overall, most of the real additional income to Oxford in this package would go straight into new student support.”

He added: “The changes to the financing of higher education – including the deeply regrettable cuts to teaching funding – present a real challenge to maintaining the excellence in teaching and research that distinguishes the world’s best universities. Here at Oxford we will still be spending around £77m a year in subsidising the true cost of an undergraduate education.

“Investment in the long-term sustainability of our world-leading institutions should be a major national priority. It is not an issue that will go away.”

Oxford’s student funding arrangements will form part of the agreement to be concluded with the Office for Fair Access (OFFA). The agreement is being finalised by the University and will develop plans to widen access to Oxford from groups that are currently under-represented – whether they are particular schools and colleges, particular neighbourhoods, people from disadvantaged backgrounds, or people with disabilities.

For further information contact the Press Office, University of Oxford, on 01865 280532, press.office@admin.ox.ac.uk

Notes to editors

1) Proposed charges

In order to ensure that potential debt aversion is not a barrier to students from poorer backgrounds applying to Oxford, the proposals include a system of generous tuition charge waivers.

Around one in six Oxford students (16%) would benefit from waivers, based on the current student mix. Around one in ten (9.4%) would get the highest waiver and so the lowest effective tuition charge of £3,500 in the first and £6,000 thereafter.

Tuition charges for 2012 entry (after waivers applied)

2) Proposed bursaries

Living costs while studying need to met upfront, so Oxford is proposing the continuation of a very generous bursary scheme, which will ensure all students can cover living costs without needing to take on paid work during term time.

Living costs at Oxford are no higher than any other university in the country, and will be lower than many, given the exceptional facilities and the very large amount of college accommodation available (all students ‘live in’ for at least two years).

Over a quarter of all our students (26%) would benefit from a bursary, based on the current student mix. Around one in ten (9.4%) would get the highest bursary of £4,300 in the first year and £3,300 thereafter.

Bursary support for 2012 entry

 3) Proposed spending

Oxford is proposing to invest £19m in total in support and outreach, of which £7m is new spend. That £19m breaks down into £12m on financial support, £3.4m on outreach, and £3.5m in on-course support services.

Oxford’s investment in student support from 2012 (once in ‘steady state’ in 2015-16)

4) Access

Oxford aims are to attract applications from all individuals with the potential to study at the University; to admit the very best; and to educate them in an intensive, world-class teaching system.

In its Access Agreement Oxford will outline programmes of activity and targets for increasing diversity in its student body.

There are four targets set out in the latest draft of the Access Agreement, but work on the details on these is ongoing (the Access Agreement does not have to be with OFFA until mid-April). These targets are milestones, not quotas (which would anyway be illegal). Oxford remains committed to the principle of merit-based admissions. The draft targets relate to:

-increasing the number of UK undergraduate students at Oxford from schools and colleges which historically have had limited progression to Oxford;
-increasing the number of UK undergraduate students at Oxford from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds;
-increasing the number of UK undergraduate students at Oxford from neighbourhoods with low participation in higher education;
-meeting the HEFCE benchmark on disabled students at Oxford.

5) Admissions

•    Oxford selects students on the basis of aptitude and potential for their chosen subject. The selection system is rigorous, resource-intensive, and meritocratic.

•    Oxford remains committed to the principle of selecting solely on the basis of academic merit.

6) Student support services

•    Oxford plans to spend an additional £750k on additional student services, including induction, financial advice and guidance, counselling, provision for students with disability and careers advice.

7) Sustainability

•    The estimated cost of Oxford’s world-class, intensive, highly personalised undergraduate education is £16,000 per student per year.
•    After public funding cuts, the proposals only bring in £10m of real extra income, of which 70% (£7m, seven pounds in every ten) goes on new spending on student support and access.
•    The University will continue to subsidise the cost of teaching each UK and EU undergraduate by several thousand pounds per student per year, a subsidy totalling around £77m pounds a year.

8) Other points

•    At Oxford, as at all UK universities, no UK/EU student would pay tuition charges while studying, but only after graduation when earning over £21,000, and then in an income-linked way, like a tax.
•    On top of the core support proposed, colleges would continue to provide highly individualised support to students, including financial support, and to spend their own resources on outreach in addition to the University’s proposed £3.4m spend.
•    The proposals are subject to approval by OFFA.