Fees For 'Stay-at-home' Students May End

Ministers are considering axing tuition fees for some students who would not be claiming grants or loans, it has emerged.

The 'no fee degrees' - in which students in England would not pay tuition fees - would be aimed at university students living at home with their parents, allowing them to avoid mounting debts.

The proposal is in a draft framework for the future of higher education, the BBC today reported.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) said a number of measures to increase access to university are being considered, however, nothing has yet been finalised.

It is thought the idea would appeal to those would-be students from the most disadvantaged backgrounds, who would be put off going to university for fear of debts, as well as those who are supporting themselves through part-time employment while they are studying.

Next year tuition fees are set to cost £3,225 per year. The National Union of Students (NUS) have already voiced concerns over the cost of fees combined with living costs.

Wes Streeting, President of the union, told the BBC: "I do worry about the future of higher education when those with the ability to pay to study at an institution elsewhere have the traditional experience - the moving away, the gaining of friends and independence.

"Poorer students, on the other hand, could be stuck in the communities they grew up in."

A spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, also told the BBC: "As part of the higher education framework we are considering a number of measures to increase access to higher education and maintain our sector's world class status.

"Ahead of its publication any discussion of the proposals it will contain are purely speculative."

Ministers are due to begin a review of tuition fees this year. At the moment, universities cannot charge more than the £3,225 cap.

(JM/BMcc)