§ Jeff EnnisTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what estimate he has made of the additional income that would be raised by increasing the payment towards tuition fees under the existing arrangements to £1,500 per annum. [96394]
§ Margaret HodgeAssuming that the means tested element of tuition fees for Academic Year 2002/03 had been set at £1,500 rather than £1,100, we estimate that English Higher Education Institutions would have received additional fee income of £310 million in the Financial Year 2002–03, made up from
(i) approximately £160 million of public contributions and,
(ii) approximately £150 million of private contributions.
The residual income1 threshold2 at which private contributions to fee support begin and the level of residual income at which the public contribution to fees reaches zero, are both assumed to be unchanged. Therefore the steepness of the taper (private contribution per £ of residual income) is assumed to increase. It has been further assumed that the changes to fees and means-testing have no impact on the number of students going to higher education, nor on their distribution by residual income.
These estimates are based on projections of student numbers for 2002/03 derived from actual data for academic year 2000/01. Private contributions have been estimated from 2000/01 LEA income assessment data and assumed growth rates in annual earnings.
1 Residual Income is gross income less the allowances detailed in my Department's guidance, "Financial Support for Higher Education Students"
354W2 £20,480 for dependent students and £17,715 for independent in 2002/03.