OXFORD UNIVERSITY will eventually be forced to charge fees of up to £15,000 a year for some courses if it is to remain a world-class institution, the bursar of a leading college has predicted.
David Palfreyman, director of the university's Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies and bursar of New College, has voiced his concerns in a book. All three main parties have ruled out "top-up fees" for this Parliament, but, writing in the Oxford Tutorial, Mr Palfreyman says "Unless top-up tuition fees are charged and/or extra endowment capital found, the Oxford colleges will simply, slowly, collectively sink into a steady decline." Fees of £15,000 for high-cost courses such as medicine would generate funds for bursaries for poorer students, as well as providing the funds needed to compete with leading American universities, he said.
An Oxford University spokesman said that Mr Palfreyman was expressing a personal view. The university had no plans for top-up fees. However, Baroness Warwick of Undercliffe, chief executive of Universities UK and a Labour peer, confirmed yesterday that top-up fees remained one of the options that vice-chancellors were exploring to raise an extra £900 million a year by 2004.