Tuition fees 2012: what are the universities charging?

Universities are starting to announce their tuition fees for students in 2012. How much are universities planning to charge?

Oxford University is amongst the universities planning on charging the maximum £9000 tuition fee. Photograph: Robert Judges/Alamy

Here is our list of universities and how much they intend to charge intuition fees from next autumn.

A growing number plan to charge £9,000 per year – the maximum possible. This has raised fears that the government will have to claw back funds from universities – possibly by reducing the number of places on degree courses – if the majority of institutions charge the maximum.

It was also revealed last week that all universities have planned on charging £6000 or more. Jessica Shepherd writes:

"The Office for Fair Access (Offa) announced that every one of the 123 universities and university colleges in England intend to charge £6,000 or more to full-time undergraduates from autumn 2012. A further 17 further-education colleges – out of 124 – want to charge fees of more than £6,000. Universities had until midnight on Tuesday to submit their plans to the watchdog.

The latest universities to announce their 2012 tuition fee plans are:

• Anglia Ruskin has announced plans for £8,300 tuition fees for future students

• Both Bath Spa and Chester have gone for the maximum, £9000 fee

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MPs voted in December to allow fees for UK students on undergraduate courses to rise from £3,350 a year to £6,000, and £9,000 in "exceptional cases."

But ministers assumed that universities would charge different levels of fees and that the average, across more than 130 institutions, would be £7,500.

The government pays students' tuition fees in the first instance. Graduates pay the government back when they are earning more than £21,000. If the average fee is higher than ministers anticipated, the government will end up paying more up front, and this may not be sustainable.

So far only a handful of institutions (announced so far) have published plans to charge less than the maximum. Liverpool Hope University has said it intends to charge below £9,000, but has not finalised its plans.

Vince Cable, Business Secretary, announced in Parliament:
"the introduction of a fee cap of £6,000, rising to £9,000 in exceptional circumstances"

Universities that charge more than £6,000 must set out targets to widen their pool of students beyond white, middle-class teenagers. These must be agreed by the government's access watchdog, the Office for Fair Access.

Universities and colleges had until Tuesday 19 April 2011 to submit their access agreements to Offa. They will then assess their agreements and announce all that have been approved by 11 July 2011 - so the fees below are the amount universities are intending to charge. These will be updated as further universities publish their plans.