New Tuition Fees 'Not Good Value', Say University Students

The majority of final year students do not believe tuition fees of up to £9,000 are value for money, research suggests.

Tuition fees are due to treble to a maximum of £9,000 from next year, but a new study reveals that many of today's students would have been unhappy paying that amount.

Just 14% of the 1,000 final year students questioned said they would have been happy with the value for money if they had been charged a maximum of £9,000 per year, with 72% saying they would have been unhappy.

In comparison, almost two thirds (62%) of the students, who paid around £3,000 per year for their degrees under the current system, said their university course was good value.

The study, commissioned by the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference to mark the start of their annual meeting in St Andrews, asked 1,000 final year students about their university experiences. Half of the students questioned had attended state schools and the other half were educated privately.

The findings raise concerns that some students feel university is not living up to their expectations, with some rating the teaching they received at school more highly.

Overall, one in 12 (8%) said university has left them poorly prepared for a career after graduation, with 73% saying higher education did prepare them well.

More than half (52%) of those questioned said the teaching they were given at school was better than that at university. This was more marked among privately educated pupils, with 61% saying their school teaching was better, compared with 42% of state school youngsters.

Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of Universities UK, said: "It is quite nonsensical to try to compare school teaching with university teaching as they are entirely different things. 

"We agree that high-quality teaching in schools can have a profound effect on whether a young person enters higher education. Nonetheless, the different but complementary roles played by the schools and universities do need to be recognised."