To: Education Secretary
Introduce differential pricing of University Tuition Fees
The UK is held back by significant skills gaps in a range of fields (e.g. Medicine, Engineering) and yet students who wish to study these subjects at University are charged the same tuition fees as those studying subjects that our country doesn't need (e.g. History of Art). By forecasting future skills gaps, tuition fees should be used as a tool to optimise the mix of graduates entering the workplace.
Why is this important?
Tuition fees are currently set at flat rate of £9k per student per year regardless of the future value that each student will deliver to the country. This is short sighted and counterproductive, producing thousands of graduates that no-one needs and students destined to undertake "non-graduate" jobs. At their age, money talks. Being offered a "free" degree in Computer Science, for example, will encourage more candidates to apply to learn useful skills.
