Theresa May is to challenge the cost of UK universities, calling them to charge less for several courses based on costs and the potential graduate earnings.
Despite critics within her party, the Prime Minister will call on higher education institutions to change the existing fees that are applied to all courses at all UK universities.
“The competitive market between universities which the system of variable tuition fees envisaged has simply not emerged,” she will say in Derby on Monday.
“All but a handful of universities charge the maximum possible fees for undergraduate courses. Three-year courses remain the norm. And the level of fees charged do not relate to the cost or quality of the course. We now have one of the most expensive systems of university tuition in the world.”
Her proposed ideas come following Damian Hinds’, the new education secretary, hints on Sunday for a review into lowering fees for social science and humanities courses.
“I don’t think it’s as straightforward as just separating arts from sciences – and of course there’s great value to both arts degrees and science degrees,” said Hinds on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“But I think there different considerations for courses, There is the cost to put it on, there’s the return to the individual, and there’s also the returns to our economy and to society as a whole.”
This is contrary to the former education secretary, Lord Adonis, who believed the UK should scrap all fees for universities in the UK, similarly to Germany.
Lord Adonis did not back the idea of different subjects having different costs, saying it would reduce the number of students applying to science subjects if they cost more than social science or humanities.
He called the idea a “big backward step”.
Theresa May will make her speech concerning university fees on Monday in Derby.