University heads give support to top-up fees

Most universities will charge top-up fees if the Government lifts the cap on tuition costs, The Independent has discovered in a poll of vice-chancellors. And the controversial charges will not be limited to Britain's elite universities, the survey found.

Redbrick and Sixties campus universities said yesterday they would immediately join the most celebrated institutions in charging more than the present £1,100 a year maximum. But they insist estimated charges of £10,000 or £15,000 were "fantasy figures". They say the true initial cost to students or parents is likely to be about £3,000 a year.

Universities in the Russell Group – Britain's answer to the Ivy League – have always been expected to increase their fees if the Government's review of higher education, due in January, allows them to charge more. But another group of universities, including many Sixties campus institutions, are also preparing to introduce the charges.

Most of the so-called 1994 group, which includes smaller universities such as Durham, York, Reading, Essex, Surrey and Sussex, also believe higher charges are now inevitable. At a recent meeting of the 17-strong group, only two vice- chancellors said they were opposed to top-up fees.

Fears that the fees could cost parents more than £10,000 a year were prompted last month by a confidential paper by Sir Richard Sykes, rector of Imperial College, London, which set out the university's plans to introduce a top-up of as much as £10,500 a year.

Sir Colin Lucas, the vice-chancellor of Oxford University, said: "It's really not helpful to talk about the very large sorts of sums that have been banded about. I don't think that's the sort of sum at all." Sir Colin said Oxford faced a deficit of between £2,500 and £3,000 per student per annum, suggesting that the university would charge a maximum of £4,100 (the £3,000 deficit plus the present £1,100 fee).

The Russell Group of universities will be at the heart of debate on top-up fees. Its 19 institutions, including Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial, complain that government under-funding will mean they can no longer compete with their international rivals.

Although Edinburgh and Glasgow universities, the only Scottish members of the Russell Group, have consistently opposed top-up fees, there is broad agreement among the rest that, if the Government allows universities to set their own fees, they will introduce the charges.

Alasdair Smith, the vice- chancellor of Sussex University, said: "My expectation would be that if fees are deregulated I would expect us to set fees higher than our present level but not in the area of some of the figures being discussed. I think talk of £10,000-plus is way out of line. My view is that a university like us might increase our fees by between £1,000 and £3,000 on top of the £1,100 maximum."

Ivor Crewe, vice-chancellor of Essex University, said: "Given the level of government funding, if fees are deregulated the university would give very serious consideration to increasing its fees. But the fees would be nothing like the fantasy figures mentioned by Sir Richard Sykes."