Continuing students
Am I allowed to increase fees for continuing students to allow for inflation?
Any inflationary rises to the basic and higher fee caps are set by the Government each year. This may include a decision of not raising the caps. No institution may charge a fee above the maximum cap.
Your ability to apply an inflationary increase to fees for continuing students within the maximum cap will depend on:
- the terms used to describe any inflationary increases in your access agreement
- the information and advice you gave students on your website and elsewhere when they applied and accepted a place on their course
- the terms of the contract entered into with the student.
You will need to ensure that any inflationary increases you apply for continuing students are reasonable and reflect your existing commitments to those students.
You should consider carefully the wording in your access agreement, and other published materials, to ensure that potential applicants are clear about what fees they will be paying for the duration of their course, before they apply.
Specific guidance relating to fees for continuing students under 2015-16 access agreements will be published in a separate guidance note. This will be issued once the caps have been set by the Government. This normally happens in March. For details of the 2014-15 arrangements, please see our guidance note issued in March 2013, Fee caps and inflationary increases for 2014-15 (HEIs and FECs).
My institution is not planning to charge more than the basic fee for students who start their courses in the coming academic year. However, in previous year(s) we have charged students above the basic fee – what happens now?
You do not need a new access agreement to cover your new entrants. However, those students who started in previous years will remain on the terms of the access agreement that applies to them. You may be required to provide annual monitoring reports until these students have left your institution.