EDUCATION chiefs have moved to allay fears that a number of UK universities will charge considerably more than the £9,000 funding cap.
iomtoday has received letters from a number of readers concerned that students could be left with a huge bill to pay as a result.
If Education Minister Tim Crookall’s proposals are approved it would herald the end of free university education.
The controversial move to introduce tuition fees and a student loan scheme is due to be debated at next week’s Tynwald sitting.
A woman working within secondary education in the island, who asked not to be named, said: ‘For UK students their government has capped fees at £9,000 per year, for Manx students this is not the case. Over a third of Russell Group universities are currently charging more than this for Manx students, many are charging significantly more.
‘The charges for Manx students and their parents to pay from their own pocket is massively more than their UK counterparts in many, many cases.’
But the Department of Education and Children says more than 200 institutions have agreed to the new fee arrangements which mean that island students would pay the same for a course as an English student.
It says that three universities – Imperial College London, Cambridge, and Warwick – will be charging international rates to island students in 2013.
In addition, for certain courses at Cardiff the fees will be £12,000 rather than £9,000.
And there are a number of universities which are charging £1,500 on top of the agreed £9,000 maximum for laboratory/workshop courses.
These include London School of Economics, Lancaster, Durham, Bristol, East Anglia and Nottingham. The position with York has yet to be confirmed.
Five of these seven are members of the Russell Group of leading universities as are the three charging international rates and Cardiff.
A DEC spokesman said: ‘Three universities are intending to charge island students full international fees for courses starting in 2013-14 and one is charging higher fees for certain specific courses.
‘We currently have 30 students at various stages studying a variety of undergraduate degrees at these universities.
‘The basis on which current students at these universities are charged is unaffected.
‘Seven universities are seeking to charge an additional amount for laboratory/workshop courses. Five of these are members of the Russell Group, one of which is yet to confirm that it will be charging an additional amount for these courses.’
The spokesman said: ‘In total we have 32 students currently studying three to four year laboratory/workshop courses at these universities representing an average of 10 new students starting each year.
‘We have 254 students studying at the remaining Russell Group universities of whom 46 are studying laboratory/workshop courses.’
At next week’s Tynwald sitting, a petition against the changes by two sixth form students from St Ninian’s High School – Sam Turton and Ben Ingham – will be laid before members on their behalf by Onchan MHK and former education minister Peter Karran (Lib Van). It has 2,500 signatures.
Since the deadline passed to submit the petition at the end of December, students have continued collecting signatures and they have now collected more than 3,000 names.
When the petition is laid before Tynwald on their behalf, it will be the first time the rarely used procedure under Tynwald standing orders has been used since 1998.
At that time, Garff MHK Steve Rodan presented a petition on behalf of 440 Laxey residents against planning approval for the Total garage in Laxey.
Students protested outside Tynwald last month – when the Student Regulations were initially set to be debated – and they hope everyone opposed to the plans will join a protest, again outside Tynwald, on Tuesday afternoon.
Sam Turton, aged 18, of Mount View Road, Onchan, said: ‘We hope they (Tynwald members) will see sense and democracy will prevail as opposed to the tyranny of those in the Council of Ministers.’
Under the DEC plans, all students would contribute £2,500 a year towards their degree courses for the first time, from 2014, with those whose parents earn more than £80,000 a year contributing more on an incremental basis.
A government loan scheme would allow students to borrow the £2,500 a year contribution.