For at least some of the courses all but three English higher education institutions will charge tuition fees of £9,250. The average tuition fee at English higher education institutions will increase to £9,110 in 2017-18, up from £8,905 the year before (source: The World university ranking).

A leaked government document in 2016 revealed that our universities were not providing good quality teaching despite the increased fees. The leaked report goes on to say that even the Russel Group universities cannot justify the £9,000 fees for courses. A further disclosure suggests that the target of doubling the number of young people going to university will not be achieved. Open Democracy UK has calculated that the actual cost to teach an undergraduate for a year is about £4,500. Having worked at one of our top universities as an Accountant, I more or less agree with the assessment made by Open Democracy UK. We had many discussions how we could raise extra funds to attract the best professors in their field and to buy the best equipment so that we could continue to provide world-class research facilities. There is nothing wrong with this as an objective.

However, research by the Institute of Fiscal Studies has found that an average student will leave with £40,000 debt after they have completed their degree and although by 2015 the average starting salary for a new graduate was £30,000 it will still take 24 years or so to pay off the student debt. The question is, are the students getting value for money?

Nick Hillman, Director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, has said: “students really, really care about contact hours.” There are several courses with only eight hours a week or lower. Save the Student also ran their National Student Money Survey, between May and June 2016, polling over 2,000 university students in the UK. The proportion of students who felt that the value of their degree was good or very good was just 37% – down from 53% in 2012. What seems to please students and needs to improve is to make lessons more interesting and support or help from tutors is provided.

To ensure value for money for the degree students undertake I suggest an upfront contract between the students and the university that can be independently quantified and covers at least the following areas: –

• Good quality and up to date subject notes are provided by the university;
• Agreed contact hours with students with extra hours to be made available as required by the students;
• Detailed feedback when returning coursework;
• Agreement with the student on the hours he/she must attend and minimum coursework during the year they must hand in;

Failure by the university to meet agreed standards should be met by punitive charge and refund to the students.

* Cllr. Tahir Maher is a member of the LDV editorial team