Oxford charged overseas students £13,000 for a physics degree Students may have to pay five times the current degree course cost at England’s top universities if the cap is removed on tuition fees, research suggests.
A study for education charity Sutton Trust looked at how fees for overseas students, which are unregulated, have risen at 20 universities.
Some universities charge non-EU students more than £20,000 a year.
The charity also warned that poor students were most likely to be deterred by higher fees.
The Sutton Trust report said: “As the patterns for current overseas student fees demonstrate, charges for degree courses are likely to escalate rapidly if completely unregulated.
“At the highest end of the market, this could mean annual fees perhaps five times the current annual undergraduate payments – assuming that current government subsidies continue.”
It added that universities with the “highest academic reputations” were likely to see the highest fee rises – particularly for courses with the highest financial returns.
And students from poorer backgrounds were most likely to face problems in getting into universities of their choice, the report warned.
Recent surveys have suggested that three-quarters of young people would be put off universities by fees of £10,000.
The Sutton Trust called for a comprehensive set of grants, loans and support for poorer students.
Another suggestion was that those from low income homes should get their first year at university for free.
The report said: “The free first year it is hoped would alleviate some of the risk and uncertainty that deter non-privileged students from applying to certain courses and institutions.”
It also suggested introducing financial incentives for universities to recruit poorer students.
This would involve creating a “bounty fund of tens of millions of pounds a year to reward universities that make special efforts to recruit such students”.
The UCU lecturers’ union said the report backed its own findings that countries with deregulated fees charged more.
UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said: “As we approach the delivery of the university funding review we are hearing more and more dark rumours about what Lord Browne might recommend. However, we are hearing no radical or progressive options.
“If the funding review simply lists ways to squeeze more money out of students and their families then it will have spectacularly failed its remit.
“Lord Browne must look seriously at the idea of taxing big business for the substantial benefits it gains from a plentiful supply of graduates and using that money to expand, rather than reduce, opportunity to study.”
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