University of Central England in Birmingham

1 Will you charge:
A Top-up fees across the board maximum (?3,000)
B A flat rate for all courses below ?3,000. (If so, what is it)
C Different rates for different courses.(If so,please specify range - ie minimum/maximum)


"All full time undergraduates will be charged ?3,000. HNDs and foundation degrees will be less, but we're not sure how much less yet."


2 If you are varying fees will they be:
A Lower for Sciences
B Lower for Arts/Humanities/social sciences
C Lower for foundation degrees
D Lower for vocationally-focused degrees
E A combination, please state (areas or specific courses)


3 Are you introducing bursaries?
A Yes
B No


4 How much for?
?300 - not more


5 If yes, will they be:
A Targeted at the most needy students
B Targeted at subjects which are short of students
C A mixture, please detail


"Mostly A but a very limited number of funds are available for particular subjects."


6 If yes, are they funded
A From central university funds
B From a benefactor, private donations, etc?
C A mixture?


7 Have you employed outside agencies to help you make the decision (market researchers/brand managers)?
A Yes
B No


"We are grown up and able to make our own minds up."


8 Where will you spend the extra income?
A Better student facilities - just spent money on that
B Better academic facilities -library, study areas, computers, etc
C Better academic pay - possibly
D Bursaries
E Bumping up research capacity
F Other, please state


9 Will top-up fees provide enough extra income for the university for the foreseeable future?
A Yes
B No


10 How long do you expect the limit on top-up fees to remain at ?3,000?
A 1-3 years
B 4-6 years
C 7-10 years
D Over 10 years


11 Do you think top-up fees will put less well-off students off going to university?
A Yes
B No


"The support arrangements, which do need to be well explained, are much better then people think. You don't have to pay until afterwards and students who are less well-off will get significant support that they don't get at the moment. The responsibility for making that clear rests with the DfES and they should get their noses to the grindstone now, to make sure that message gets out."


12 How do you think Offa will affect your attempts to widen participation?
A Help
B Hinder
C Have no effect
D Undecided, please state


"It's another nuisance, a waste of space. We'll write the essay, we'll send the thing off, and really we aren't in Offa's sights - it's the exclusive universities that they are after. I don't believe that it will make any contribution at all to widening participation. Universities are largely committed to finding the best students. The idea that somebody in the fag end of Whitehall is going to make a positive contribution to this is absolute lunacy. But it was part of the deal so we've had to accept it."


Any other comments:
Part-time students:
"Most part-time students won't be able to afford an increase in fees so there will be no extra money coming in to the university for PT students. The effect of that is that offering places to PT students is significantly less attractive and this is a problem that nobody appears to be solving. We will make more money from FT students, and that will make taking on PT students much less attractive."