This year, universities were required to submit their proposed fee structure to the Office for Fair Access (OFFA), the higher education fair access regulator, for the 2012-13 academic year after the government raised the cap on tuition fees to £9,000. It quickly emerged that around a third of all universities were opting to charge the full £9,000.
The government published a Higher Education White Paper in the summer, after funding arrangements had been submitted by Universities. The government proposals outlined details of a ‘ring fenced’ 20,000 funded student places to be allocated to those institutions charging less than £7,500.
Offa has confirmed that it has received bids from universities to lower their fees to qualify for the scheme and has issued a guidance note to universities which states: "You may be considering measures to lower your institution's net average fee, in order to bid for places under the new 'core and margin' system. This guidance note sets out how to make any resulting changes to your access agreement."
Reacting to today’s news, Gareth Thomas, the shadow universities minister, said: “No student should have to face paying £9,000 tuition fees. The fees set by universities are a mess of the Government’s own making after they cut university funding by 80 per cent and allowed tuition fees to treble.”
“We now risk a two-tier university system emerging; some universities charging £9,000 and being very well-funded, while the majority of students attend poorer universities charging only slightly lower fees, yet being hit hardest by cuts in government funding.”
However, Vince Cable speaking at the Universities UK Annual Conference today defended the move, “we're reserving 20,000 places for universities, FE colleges and other providers able to demonstrate that they can deliver high-quality courses at less than £7,500.” He described the initiative as being, “about freeing up the current restrictions on student numbers, frankly increasing competition, and supporting diversity within the sector.”
Our 
