A STUDENTS’ union has welcomed the University of Chester’s decision not to charge the full £9,000 for those starting studies later this year.
The union is pleased the university is reducing tuition fees for full time undergraduates to £8,000, but says it still isn’t cheap.
Vice president Jack Mason said: “The new arrangements should be even more inclusive for those wanting an excellent standard of university education. In no way at all do we see £8,000 fees as ‘budget’, but massively encouraging that the university is set on including students from all backgrounds in the hope of reaching their potential.”
But in a controversial move it has emerged the university is replacing the bursary scheme, which puts money in poorer students’ pockets for everyday living expenses, with partial waivers on tuition fees which are covered by loans and paid back in future.
The National Union of Students prefers bursaries because it gives support to students when they need it and up to 40% of students would not have to pay the fees back any way.
The university was forced to lower its average tuition fee level to below £7,500 – after all fee waivers had been taken into account – otherwise it would have lost more than 10% of its student allocation.
University vice chancellor Professor Tim Wheeler said: “Under the new arrangements, a full-time undergraduate honours student will pay less and those from lower income backgrounds will qualify for more generous fee waivers over the three years of their degree programmes.”
He added: “Because of its increasing popularity, the University of Chester is already heavily oversubscribed and estimates that it will have nine applicants per place for the next academic year.”
