is this new news? uni's need funding, this always happened it's either this or everyone pay £££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££

We do too! I was so shocked when I first arrived at Nottingham and encountered all these privileged kids. Asking what school I went to, as if they actually expected to have heard of the answer! Once I learnt how to recognise them and where they could be found, I managed to avoid them for much of my time at university, thank GOD

Off topic a bit, but does anyone know what's happening with MA and postgrad fees? Are they going up as well? I don't think I've seen any discussion of this in the papers. If I'd had to pay £9000 I just wouldn't have considered doing an MA, even though, as I bang on about all the time, literary theory is my life.

rosaline: it is new news, because being allowed to buy places at your preferred institution by paying international student fees up-front wasn't part of the proposals last year. This would make universities even more about ability to pay rather than your academic talent.

No idea- because they are already really different in price? When I was doing my masters, Oxford cost double what LSHTM charged for a similar course. Think at SOAS if you do international development, they've been charging a fortune for years.

Ahh, you're right, I forgot that some unis already use MAs to massively rip off students. York, Nottingham, Leeds and the SOAS course I nearly did all charge the same as undergrad, hence my wondering about whether unis that do this would raise the MA fees to match. It's weird that there's been no discussion at all about MAs, but then, what you said probably explains it, they can already charge what they like.

Partly that, and partly because, despite that, they can still be relied upon as a scapegoat.