University fees could be linked to teaching standards, regulator says

Universities in England might in future have to charge different levels of tuition fees depending on the quality of their teaching, the higher education regulator has suggested.

The Office for Students (OfS) has said "differential fee levels" could offer an incentive to higher quality teaching.

Currently, all universities in England and Wales charge a fee of £9,535 for an undergraduate degree and the regulator stressed that any changes over fees were for government to decide. Skills Minister Jacqui Smith said funding plans would be set out this autumn.

The OfS ranks universities into four categories - gold, silver, bronze and "requires improvement".

The annual cost of an undergraduate degree rose to £9,535 in England and Wales this year, and vice chancellors who gathered at the Universities UK conference in Exeter this week were keen to know whether or not there will be more increases to come.

Any fee increases in England would be announced by the Department for Education, which is due to publish its higher education white paper this autumn.

But the suggestion that fees could be linked to teaching quality means there will also be a focus on the Office for Students and its Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF).

An OfS spokesman said the regulator would be consulting on proposed changes to the TEF.

"Decisions about fee limits are rightly for ministers and parliament. Differential fee levels would offer one possible way to incentivise high quality teaching," he said.

What "differential fee levels" could look like is yet to be determined.

It is not clear, for example, whether the cap would remain £9,535 for some and be lowered for others, or whether the cap would rise for some - even in line with inflation each year - but stay at at £9,535 for others.

More than four in 10 universities in England expected to be in a financial deficit by this summer.

Vivienne Stern, the chief executive of Universities UK, told the BBC there would be "a debate over the course of the next few months" as to which universities would be able to charge which rates.

She said universities had a "shared objective" with the OfS to uphold standards but it was "quite difficult" for universities to improve quality "with less resources".

"Weve already got a system thats under quite a lot of financial strain. But having said that, I dont think we would disagree that there should be regulatory bite where institutions are falling below expected standards," she said.

"I think the the discussion were going to have is really about where do you set the bar?"

She pointed out that the OfS considered universities in the "bronze" category and above to meet minimum quality requirements, as opposed to those that "required improvement"

"Its not unreasonable to apply [regulatory bite] below that threshold where an institution might require improvement," she said.

"There are no universities in our membership that are in that category, but thats where the discussion is going to be and I think thats going to be a debate over the course of the next few months."

Earlier, Baroness Smith told vice chancellors she recognised "the need to ensure that there is a sustainable financial settlement" for universities and the government would publish its white paper "reasonably soon".

She also cautioned university leaders against taking a "defensive approach" in discussions about their funding, adding: "While an enormous amount of wisdom exists in higher education, thats not all the wisdom in the world."

Additional reporting by Branwen Jeffreys