Comment: Red tape prioritised over student hardship

23 January 2023

Russell Group Chief Executive Dr Tim Bradshaw has written for HEPI's Weekend Reading column (21 January 2023) about the signal a potential rise in Office for Students (OfS) fees sends about Government priorities.

It follows proposals from the Department for Education (DfE) to increase the registration fees the OfS can charge universities by between 13% and 15%, while uplifting maintenance loans for students in England for 2023/24 by just 2.8%.

We’ve been clear with Department for Education that, before any increase in the Office for Students’s fees is considered, the regulator should demonstrate clearly how this extra funding will bring genuine benefit to students and how it plans to show that it is itself operating in the most efficient and effective way.

Dr Tim Bradshaw, Chief Executive of the Russell Group

You can read the column in HEPI in full here, and the Russell Group's analysis that shows students are set to lose out on £1500 as maintenance loans fail to keep up with inflation here.

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