Update: the changes described below have now come into effect. Read about what these changes may mean for you.
Earlier this year, the Government announced plans that would enable universities in England that achieve a set quality standard to increase tuition fees by an inflationary amount.
The set quality standard is the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). Royal Holloway has achieved this standard for the first year of TEF.
While the framework for fees to increase is in place, the Government also needs to make some changes to the current regulations around fees and loans for their plans to proceed. These changes are subject to formal parliamentary approval.
Although the changes to the fee and loan regulations have not yet received formal parliamentary approval, we want you to know how the changes will affect you if they are approved.
Will I have to pay more for my tuition fees if the formal parliamentary approval for changes to fees and loans regulations is secured?
If you are a UK or EU undergraduate student whose degree programme began on or before September 2015 the changes, if they’re approved, will not affect you. While the proposed changes to the regulations would, if approved, allow us to increase your fee for 2017/18 to £9,250, we have made a decision to hold your fees at £9,000 a year. Your tuition fees will remain at £9,000 for the duration of your course.
If you are a UK or EU undergraduate student who enrolled on a degree programme in September 2016, and parliamentary approval on the Government’s proposed changes to fees and loans regulations is secured, your tuition fee will increase to £9,250 for 2017/18. If Royal Holloway continues to meet the quality standard as set out in the Teaching Excellence Framework, your tuition fee may then increase each year by a maximum amount that is controlled by the Government.
If you are a student from the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man, your fees will be the same as those proposed for UK and EU undergraduate students, based on the criteria outlined above. Information about funding for tuition fees can be found on the island authority websites.
If you are an international student you will not be affected by these changes. Your fees will continue to be revised each year as they are now.
If you are on a postgraduate course, you will pay the fee set at the start of your year-long course.
Why is Royal Holloway planning to increase undergraduate tuition fees for some UK and EU students if the formal parliamentary approval for changes to fees and loans regulations is secured?
The current undergraduate tuition fee of £9,000 a year was set by the Government in 2010. With inflation and rising costs, the value of that £9,000 tuition fee has fallen in real-terms to the equivalent of £8,500.
Today, around 60% of the money Royal Holloway spends on areas such as teaching, support, facilities and equipment comes from tuition fees. If we are to continue to deliver the teaching and services that matter to you, and continue to improve them in a world of rising costs, we need to increase the fees that we charge.
The Government’s new Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) is intended to improve the quality of teaching at UK universities and maintain funding to support high-quality teaching. Only universities that achieve the quality standard as set out in the TEF will be allowed to increase their fees.
Royal Holloway has met the quality standard measures for the first year of TEF. This means that, if Parliament approves the Government’s proposed changes to fee and loan regulations, we will be able to charge a higher fee from September 2017.
If we continue to achieve that standard each year going forward, we will be able to increase fees year on year by an inflationary amount set by the Government.
Why are only some of Royal Holloway’s fees changing?
If you are a UK or EU student who enrolled on or before September 2015, your fee was £9,000 and there was no indication either during the application process, when you accepted your offer, or when you joined that your fee might increase.
If you are a UK or EU students who applied to join Royal Holloway in September 2016, you were informed during the application process and when you received your offer that tuition fees might increase in future years. The potential for this increase was also included in your Terms and Conditions of Admission.
If you are an international student, you are also advised in your Terms and Conditions of Admission that your tuition fee will increase annually. The level of tuition fee charged to International Students is not affected by the Government’s proposed changes to fee and loan regulations.
What is an ‘inflationary increase’ to fees?
If the proposed changes to tuition fee and loan regulations receive parliamentary approval, the amount of money by which the fees may increase will be determined by an inflationary formula set in 2006 by a previous Government. Eligible universities will not be able to charge a fee higher than the amount that this formula will set.
Using this formula, the Government has confirmed that eligible universities can charge undergraduate tuition fees of £9,250 for 2017/18 for UK and EU students.
Using the same approach, current estimates are that the maximum undergraduate tuition fees in 2018/19 could be £9,750 for UK students. If relevant UK legislation continues to permit it, we will maintain parity between the tuition fees charged to UK and EU students for the duration of their studies.
It’s important to remember, however, that the proposed increases are still subject to formal parliamentary approval.
When will we know if fees are to increase?
We don’t currently know for sure when the Government’s proposed changes to the fee and loan regulations will go through Parliament. We’ll let you know as soon as we have more information.
What extra will I get for my money?
Every year Royal Holloway invests in resources and support services that help you succeed during your studies. Here’s some examples of the ways we’ve invested your tuition fees:
- This year, our spending on information provision in the library has increased to the equivalent of over £300 per full time equivalent student
- Over the last year our Library staff have spent over 400 hours teaching Information Literacy to help you to get the best out of the research you do in the library
- CeDAS (Centre for the Development of Academic Skills) was formed in 2014 in response to feedback that students needed additional support in core academic areas of writing, speaking, maths, statistics and numeracy. In 2015/16, CeDAS provided 1480 hours of teaching in these areas
- Our Student Services Centre responded to 35,000 queries last year from students at every level
- Our Careers & Employability Service held almost 4,000 one-to-ones with students in 2015/16, hosted almost 4,000 students at Careers events and fairs, and placed over 100 students on microplacements
- Our IT Service Desk handled over 7,000 calls from students in 2015/16, we added additional Laptop Loan cabinets to the Bedford Library, two PC labs in the Computer Centre received a makeover and 200 lab computers were updated with newer, faster hardware over the summer
- The opening of the new Boilerhouse Café, the refurbishment of the SU, the upgrading of buildings and the construction of the new Library & Student Services Centre and our new student residences all point to the investment we are making in infrastructure to improve the places where you study and live.
Why do international students pay more?
Royal Holloway admits students from over 100 countries around the world, and our tuition fees compare favourably with other high quality, research intensive universities in the UK and overseas. So that we can remain competitive in this global market, fees for international students are not fixed by the Government, and are set in response to market forces.
We have guaranteed that fees for international students will not rise by more than 5% each year so that our international students can reliably plan for the future.
Will there be any other changes to fees for EU students following the EU Referendum?
If you’re a current student from an EU country, your immigration status, fee status and tuition fee loans haven’t changed. Equally, if you’re on the Erasmus programme, your immigration and grant status haven’t changed.
If you have friends from the EU who are thinking of applying to Royal Holloway for a course that starts in 2017, the UK government has confirmed that these students will continue to be eligible for student loans and grants, and will be for the duration of their course. This eligibility will continue even if the UK exits the European Union during that period.
Royal Holloway has also confirmed that, if relevant UK legislation continues to permit it, we will maintain parity between the tuition fees charged to UK and EU students for the duration of their degree studies.
We will continue to publish updates as we receive them on our EU hub on the student intranet and in our weekly student email newsletters.
How can I find out more?
If you’d like to check what your fees are predicted to be for each year of your course, depending on whether the Government approves the changes to its tuition fee regulations, take a look at our new tuition fees checker tool on our student intranet. You just need to enter your country of origin, your starting year at Royal Holloway and your programme, and the tool will tell you what your tuition fees could be for each year of your course.
Find out how much your fees are with our intranet fees calculator