Higher fees could be the norm despite government's call for fair access
Top universities are poised to charge undergraduates the maximum fee of £9,000 a year from next September, according to the chairman of the Russell group of elite institutions.
Giving the clearest indication yet that high fees will be the norm at the most competitive institutions, Michael Arthur, who is vice-chancellor of Leeds University, told the Guardian that the most selective universities needed to raise their fees past the standstill figure of £7,000-8,000 a year to remain world class.
Arthur said: "Do we want to think about going above that level for enhanced academic excellence? Do we want to go above that level so that we can afford really good outreach [and] bursaries? That's critically important to the ethos of this university, whatever happens next, that we don't see an adverse change to the social mix."
Arthur's comments came as Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrat deputy leader appointed by the coalition to advise on fair access, said he wanted the majority of universities to stick to the new minimum fee level of £6,000.
Hughes told the Sunday Times: "They will no doubt make the case that they need more than £6,000. That doesn't mean, of course, that they all have to charge £9,000."
On Tuesday, the business secretary, Vince Cable, and the universities minister, David Willetts, will send guidance to the Office for Fair Access outlining what universities will have to do to show they are encouraging more students from poorer backgrounds, a requirement if they are to charge higher fees.
Arthur said universities may have to subsidise departments that are less successful in attracting students. "We might have schools or parts of schools that struggle to recruit," he said. "Is it legitimate to include that, so we can strategically support areas that need time to rethink, redevelop, be innovative, come up with new courses, think about doing things very differently in the future?"
Arthur said his own university had not yet made a decision on fees. He said: "I was expecting pressure to be pushing for as low a figure as possible. That hasn't materialised. I'm sure some of it will materialise."
Universities are expected to set fees for 2012 entry from next month, when the higher education funding council for England, which distributes state funding, will outline how much each university will receive for the next academic year.
Ministers have told universities not to assume they will be able to charge the maximum fee.
Arthur acknowledged there would be "forces in the other direction" that might push fees down, such as competition between universities.
He said the government's decision to set the cap at £9,000 was "in the right ballpark", but his preference would have been the unlimited fee advocated in the Browne review of higher education funding. "The idea of an unrestricted cap was quite well received by most of us in the Russell group. I do think that that might have been a more interesting level," Arthur said. He predicted a sharper focus among universities on areas of specialisation and said he expected there would be increased innovation and a greater willingness to work with business under the new fees regime.
"Universities have developed themselves with a focus on excellence ... [and] let one or two other things wither on the vine. For example, at Leeds we happen to have a world-class institute of transport studies; not a lot of our competitors have anything like that. In our school of geography, we used to try and research in 15 different areas; we've homed in on six. I think you'll see that natural process of focusing on excellence.
"Any university has to be market responsive – we used to have a department of mining, a department of agriculture. Over a five- to 10-year period we will evolve our offer."
He criticised the government's decision to scrap the EMA, the mean-tested allowance given to teenagers to stay in education after 16: "I think that is problematic in a widening participation context. If we're not going to tackle that entire chain, we're not going to solve the problem."
On Friday, Russell group universities published guidance that makes explicit their preference for traditional subjects at A-level. Arthur said this would play an important role in widening access to elite universities.
"We want people coming through with the right educational attainment, the right A-levels that link up with the courses they want to study, broadening the scope and the accuracy of the applications from people in those lower socioeconomic groups," he said.
"We want to make sure they're studying the right A-levels, that they know about the competitive nature of courses they're applying for.
"Within any Russell group institution, there will be some courses that are much more competitive, others that are not, so make sure that you've got the appropriate A-level grades. It's that intelligent relationship between schools and universities we think is important."