This guidance note clarifies our approach to:
- inflationary increases to fees for continuing students below the fee cap for 2013-14
- fees for Erasmus/study year abroad and sandwich placement years.
If, in the light of this revised guidance, you wish to make changes to your 2013-14 access agreement or your financial information (Annex B), please let us know as soon as possible so that we can finalise agreements and confirm approved fee limits for your institution and your partners before the start of the application process in September 2012.
1. Inflationary increases to fees for continuing students below the fee cap for 2013-14
Following discussion with several institutions, we are revising our guidance on inflationary increases to fees for continuing students below the fee caps in one respect – around the interpretation of ‘inflationary increases permitted by the Government’.
Where applicants or students reading your access agreement would reasonably have expected an inflationary increase to apply to their fees each year, it is for you to decide whether you will apply such an increase.
When you can apply an inflationary increase
Where you have pegged the increase in your fees directly to any increase in the fee cap, our view is that you are bound by this and cannot raise your fee. However, where you have referred in your access agreement to fees increasing for continuing students by an inflationary rate set by the Government, or a similar form of words, we consider that it would be fair to apply an increase. We suggest you calculate this increase by using the Office for Budget Responsibility forecast for RPI-X (the retail price index, excluding mortgage interest payments). This is the index to which the Secretary of State must have regard when increasing the variable fee caps. The RPI-X for 2013-14 was 3.22%. (This was also the inflationary increase applied to the maximum maintenance grant for full-time students.)
This differs from our previous advice where we interpreted any increase linked to ‘inflationary rises permitted by the Government’ to refer to the rise the Government had applied to the fee cap, which for 2013-14 was zero.
OFFA will therefore allow increases in lower fees for continuing students in 2013-14 of up to 3.22%, subject to the following conditions. You will need to ensure that any inflationary increase you apply:
- does not result in the fee caps being breached
- is reasonable
- and reflects the information and advice you gave students on your website and elsewhere when they applied for and accepted a place on their course, and the terms of the contract entered into with the student.
We will continue to monitor fees charged to continuing students over the coming months to ensure that institutional approaches are in line with their access agreements.
How to revise your 2013-14 access agreement
If, in the light of this revised guidance, you wish to revise the access agreement you have submitted to OFFA for 2013-14, or the figures in the associated annex, please do so as soon as possible so that we can finalise agreements and confirm approved fee limits for your institution and your partners before the start of the application process in September 2012. As when submitting your original access agreement, you will need to upload your revised access agreement and financial template (Annex B) to https://data.hefce.ac.uk/data
2. Fees for Erasmus/study year abroad and sandwich placement years
The Government has signalled clearly its intention to set fees for Erasmus/study year abroad and sandwich placement years at 15% of the fee caps for any student undertaking such a year from 2014-15 onwards. We have suggested that institutions follow the Government’s signal and apply fee levels in their access agreements in line with this policy intention. However, several institutions have expressed the desire to continue to set their fees under the existing fee regulations until they have been amended in line with the Government’s stated intentions. Where institutions choose to take this approach we are happy to consider their access agreements on this basis. However, we would expect institutions taking this approach to revisit their agreement in the light of any change in the regulations. In view of the Government’s stated intentions, we would also expect such institutions to want to inform prospective students of the possibility of their being charged a lower fee, subject to regulations.
How to revise your 2013-14 access agreement
If, in the light of this note, you wish to change the wording in your access agreement you have submitted to OFFA for 2013-14, or the data in the associated annex, please do so as soon as possible so that we can finalise arrangements and confirm fees for Erasmus/study year abroad and sandwich placement years before the start of the application process in September 2012. As when submitting your original access agreement, you will need to upload your revised access agreement and financial template (Annex B) to https://data.hefce.ac.uk/data
Further information
If you have a query about anything in this guidance note, please contact your OFFA institutional contact or call OFFA on 0117 931 7171.