Higher Education: Tuition Fees

House of Lords written question – answered at on 21 June 2011.

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Photo of Lord Touhig Lord Touhig Labour

To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the impact of increases in undergraduate tuition fees on the number of students able to afford to continue into postgraduate education.

Photo of Lord Henley Lord Henley The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

In his report, Lord Browne noted that the postgraduate system worked well and did not recommend any changes. However, he also noted the possibility that in future, when graduates are contributing more to the costs of their higher education at undergraduate level, they may be less likely to participate in postgraduate study and so recommended that trends in participation should be monitored carefully. It will be some time before any trends emerge but we agree that it is important to monitor this. We will ask HEFCE to review participation in postgraduate study as part of a longer term assessment and evaluation of the impact of the funding changes.

Currently, there are very little data available about who undertakes postgraduate study and as part of its review we will invite HEFCE to consider what additional data should be collected about postgraduates. We will then revisit the issue of postgraduate funding as we learn more about how the system and students respond to our reforms.

The Government value postgraduate study, and are committed to Britain being a leading place to do research. This is why, despite enormous pressure on public spending, the overall level of funding for research has been protected in cash terms in a ring-fenced budget. This will mean continued support for postgraduate research.

Research Councils have published their delivery plans setting out how they will deliver their priorities, including funding for postgraduate training. HEFCE is maintaining in cash terms its research degree programme supervision funding, which will support the next generation of researchers at £205 million for 2011-12. HEFCE is consulting on its proposals for reforming the allocation method for postgraduate research funding from 2012-13.

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