Oxford to spend 70% of real extra income on new support measures

First-year Oxford students from the lowest income households will have their tuition charges limited to £3,500 from 2012-13, repayable after graduation, under proposals approved on Monday 14 March by the University’s Council.

Annual charges would be between £3,500 and £9,000 (with lower charges achieved through waivers). Over £15m a year would be spent on financial support and access through tuition charge waivers, bursaries, and outreach work.

When cuts to public funding for teaching are taken into account, the real extra income to Oxford would amount to £10m a year, of which over £7m would be immediately reinvestedin new student support.

The proposals mean that first-year students from households with incomes under £16,000 would have a deferred charge of £3,500 – virtually the same as at present. For later years of their course, the deferred charge would be £6,000 per year. As at present, no tuition charges have to be paid upfront.

Students with household incomes up to £25,000 will have deferred charges of between £6,000 and £8,000 per year. All tuition charges are repayable only when a graduate is earning above a government-set threshold.

Oxford is also expanding its generous bursary provision, which assists students with living costs, and is designed to ensure that no student has to seek paid employment during term. First-year students from the lowest income households would receive a bursary of £4,300, dropping to £3,300 in subsequent years. Students up to household incomes of £42,000 would receive a bursary on a sliding scale.

Overall, the collegiate University will continue to meet out of its own resources almost half the real annual cost of £16,000 of educating an undergraduate at Oxford – a subsidy of around £77m a year benefitting every UK and EU student, regardless of background.

The Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, Professor Andrew Hamilton, said: “These proposals show the strength of our commitment to being accessible for all, and to attracting the very brightest students, whatever their circumstances. We have paid particular attention to concerns about debt aversion among potential students from the lowest income backgrounds. Overall, most of the real additional income to Oxford in this package would go straight into new student support.”

He added: “The changes to the financing of higher education – including the deeply regrettable cuts to teaching funding – present a real challenge to maintaining the excellence in teaching and research that distinguishes the world’s best universities. Here at Oxford we will still be spending around £77m a year in subsidising the true cost of an undergraduate education.

“Investment in the long-term sustainability of our world-leading institutions should be a major national priority. It is not an issue that will go away.”

Oxford’s student funding arrangements will form part of the agreement to be concluded with the Office for Fair Access (OFFA). The agreement is being finalised by the University and will develop plans to widen access to Oxford from groups that are currently under-represented – whether they are particular schools and colleges, particular neighbourhoods, people from disadvantaged backgrounds, or people with disabilities.

For further information contact the Press Office, University of Oxford, on 01865 280532, press.office@admin.ox.ac.uk