This House of Commons Library Briefing provides information in response to some key questions relating to childcare during the coronavirus outbreak
Documents to download
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Cost of university courses in England (353 KB, PDF)
- Most full-time undergraduate courses in England have the same tuition fee: £9,250 for home/EU students.
- There is a debate around whether this level is too high and should vary across different types of courses and different universities to more accurately reflect their costs, quality and supply and demand for places.
- With no cap on student numbers there is the potential for competition within the sector, but with nearly all universities charging the maximum fee there is little or no competition by price.
- 2012 changes to higher education finance resulted in additional funding per student when fees and funding council grants are combined. Universities that charged higher fees were also expected to increase expenditure on initiatives to improve access.
- Despite increases in fee income the data collected from the sector shows that universities overall make little or no economic surplus on teaching home/EU students.
- Income from the funding council for ‘high cost’ subjects is aimed at topping up the basic tuition fee income the universities receive to better reflect the higher costs of some courses.
- Around 40% of students are on ‘high cost’ courses which attract additional public funding of between £250 and £10,100.
- The ‘model’ used to reflect this is based on analysis of 2012-13 costs. The funding available for these variations in costs is limited: £680 million out of combined fee and funding council income for (home/EU student) teaching of just over £11 billion.
This paper analyses how higher education courses set their tuition fee levels and discusses the cost of provision of courses. It looks into how courses are funded and how tuition fee funding is spent.
Documents to download
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Cost of university courses in England (353 KB, PDF)
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The Education (Guidance about Costs of School Uniforms) Bill 2019-20 was introduced by Mike Amesbury MP following the Private Members' Bills Ballot on 9 January 2020. The Bill is supported by the Government.
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The Troubled Families Programme (TFP) is a programme in England administered by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). The programme conducts targeted interventions for families experiencing multiple problems, including crime, anti-social behaviour, truancy, unemployment, mental health problems and domestic abuse. This briefing examines the TFP since 2012, details MHCLG evaluations of the programme, and describes recent commentary and potential future directions for the programme.
