Kent Uni

By Hayley Battista

DUE to cuts in funding by the government, the University of Kent is raising its tuition fees to the maximum of £9,000 in September 2012.

Since the coalition government began there have been major cutbacks in many different departments and education has suffered big losses. This has had an effect on universities as they now have no choice but to raise their fees.

Scholarship schemes will be set up but they will only help families who earn under £21,000. Most families will earn over this amount and so they will only to be entitled to a loan and is some cases, a partial grant. The entire loan available is £5,200 that means they would still have to find around £4,000 just to cover the tuition fees. The changes will not affect international students, as they will continue to pay the tuition fees that stand at the moment.

Adam Clark, a student currently at the University of Kent, gives his view on the future fee rise. “I don’t personally think it is going to work. Families with larger incomes will be able to afford to send their children to university whereas people with families who earn less money will not have the choice because they will not have the money.”

www.kent.ac.uk

The grant available to lower income families is not a great amount, at the most they can receive £3,250 but this will mean the loan they receives almost halves, with them only receiving £3,875.

Adam commented, “For a few years the number of people that will attend the university may decrease but once parents begin to prepare their children for university financially, the figures will gradually increase again.”

For more information, visit www.kent.ac.uk