The Government has today announced the student finance package for the 2014-15 academic year for students in England. For full details see the written ministerial statement, or the most recent Student Support Information Note produced by Student Finance England.
For all new full-time and part-time students studying in 2014-15, and eligible continuing students who started their courses on or after 1 September 2012, the maximum tuition charges and maximum tuition loans will be maintained at 2013-14 levels: that is, £9,000 for a full-time undergraduate course or £6,750 for a part-time undergraduate course. In line with signalled intentions, the Government has also confirmed that the maximum fee for an Erasmus year/study year abroad in 2014-15 will be £1,350 for new system students. The maximum fee for sandwich years will be £1,800 for new system students.
Where you are currently charging below the maximum fee, OFFA will only allow fee increases (including increases in line with inflation) for continuing students in 2014-15 if your previous access agreement specifies that you intended to raise fees in this way. For further information, please see our guidance note of August 2012 Inflationary increases to fees and fees for Erasmus/study year abroad and sandwich placement years.
If you are raising fees in line with inflation, 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). The RPI-X forecast for 2014-15 is 3.1 per cent.
Submission of 2014-15 access agreements
The deadline to submit your access agreement and financial template is Monday 8 April 2013.
Your access agreement and financial template must be submitted via the HEFCE extranet. The ‘institutional key’ code that you need to access this website has been sent to you, and to heads of institutions, in the post.
Details of how to complete and submit your access agreement, and whom to contact if you have queries, are in OFFA publication 2013/01, How to produce an access agreement for 2014-15.