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Government watchdog approves proposals to widen access meaning 47 out of 123 institutions will charge maximum amount More than a third of English universities will charge £9,000 as their standard fee next year after their proposals for widening access to poorer students were approved by a government watchdog. A total of 47 out of 123 universities will charge the maximum fee across all courses. Final details of how much universities will charge undergraduates next year were released on Tuesday by the Office for Fair Access (Offa), which has vetted proposals to widen participation in higher education. The watchdog said that “fewer than half” of students will be charged a net fee of £9,000 once fee waivers – discounts for poorer students – and other financial support is taken into account. According to the figures, the estimated average fee is £8,393, far higher than the government predicted, but this drops to £8,161 when fee waivers for less well-off students are included. Every institution seeking to charge above £6,000 a year was forced to adopt an “access agreement” approved by the watchdog. In one example, Cambridge University’s access agreement sets the goal of increasing the proportion of state-educated students to 61%-63% within five years. In last year’s Cambridge undergraduate intake, 59.3% went to state schools. The university says 62% of pupils nationally who achieve the A-level results that it requires are from state schools. Oxford’s main goal on access is to increase the proportion of undergraduates from schools with “limited progression” to the university. This will target 2,300 schools where only a handful of pupils achieve three As, aiming to increase the proportion of such students at Oxford from 21.5% to 25% by 2016. Oxford will also aim to increase the proportion of undergraduates from poorer postcodes, from 6.1% currently to 9%, as well as the percentage from neighbourhoods where few teenagers go on to any form of higher education. Oxford will spend just under £11m on access in 2012 while Cambridge will spend just over £7m. Both plan to expand their summer school programmes. Offa revealed that negotiations took place with 52 institutions whose initial proposals did not meet the watchdog’s expectations. Of these, 25 were asked to be more ambitious on targets and spending. Sir Graeme Davies, director of fair access, said: “We asked institutions not to be cautious, but to be adventurous, to set stretching targets. In some cases we felt their goals were just a bit soft and needed to be hardened up.” The access agreements will be reviewed each year, with institutions that fail to meet their agreed targets on recruitment and retention facing fines or losing the right to charge more than £6,000. Separately, 10 universities and three further education colleges in Wales had their fee plans approved on Monday. The fees, approved by the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, range from £5,850 to £9,000. The average fee in Wales is £8,800. Ten English institutions will have an average fee of £9,000 after fee waivers are taken into account. This is because they are offering poorer students financial support such as bursaries rather than waiving fees. These institutions are Bradford; Durham; University of East London; University College Falmouth; Lincoln; University of the Arts London; University College London; University of the West of England, Bristol and Plymouth College of Art. The business secretary, Vince Cable, said: “We will be monitoring performance on fair access closely every year to ensure we see tangible progress in opening the doors of our universities to the most disadvantaged.” Gareth Thomas MP, Labour’s shadow universities minister drew attention to the fact that no institution had lowered its fees because of pressure from Offa. “With independent experts warning that the number of state school students going to university could drop from October 2012, this is just one more reason why students and their families will feel let down by the government’s cavalier treatment of their hopes and dreams for access to England’s universities.” Liam Burns, president of the National Union of Students, said: “Fee waivers are being used in a cynical attempt to cover up the mess made when the government trebled the tuition fee cap, instead of properly supporting less-wealthy students. “Vince Cable had stated that fees over £6,000 would only be levied in exceptional circumstances but his solemn promise has quite clearly now been left in tatters.” Last week, a study of university admissions by individual schools found that private school pupils were twice as likely as comprehensive school pupils to get into the most selective universities and seven times as likely to get into Oxbridge. Even at the 30 highest-achieving comprehensive schools, entry into competitive universities lags behind private and grammar schools, the Sutton Trust study found. Such differences cannot be explained by ability, the study says, but may be influenced by parental backgrounds, choice of A-levels and poor advice to pupils. Students at private schools are twice as likely as their peers in comprehensives to take maths, physics and chemistry A-level and three times as likely to take foreign languages, according to data obtained in parliamentary questions by the Conservative MP Elizabeth Truss. Tuition fees Higher education Students University funding Student finance Jeevan Vasagar guardian.co.uk