Queen Margaret University has set indicative tuition fees for Rest of UK (RUK) students at £6,750 per annum. No RUK student will pay more than £27,000 if studying for the full four years of a Queen Margaret University Honours degree programme.
Applicants with appropriate qualifications, including appropriately qualified candidates with A Levels, will continue to be able to enter directly into second year for a number of courses and to complete their Honours degree programme within three years. For those RUK students, the maximum payable will be £20,250.
Queen Margaret University is committed to shortening the learner journey where this makes good academic sense. The University currently offers entry with advanced standing to a number of undergraduate programmes to applicants offering a range of qualifications, including appropriately qualified candidates with A Levels.
Queen Margaret University is also committed to ensuring that suitably qualified candidates are not deterred from investing in their education on the grounds of ability to pay. For that reason, Queen Margaret University will offer financial and bursary packages to attract and support well-qualified students from low income backgrounds. Details of the bursaries will be published on our website as soon as possible.
Professor Petra Wend, Principal and Vice-Chancellor said: “Some 19% of Queen Margaret University students are from RUK, and we value sincerely the significant contribution that RUK students make to our vibrant learning community. Queen Margaret University offers a thoroughly relevant, high quality student experience reflected by our 92% graduate employment rate. When setting indicative RUK fees and bursaries, we have balanced the need to cover the costs of tuition with a commitment to continue to be attractive to RUK students, whatever their financial circumstances.”
Michael Breckenridge, Queen Margaret University’s Students’ Union President, said: “We are opposed overall to the introduction of tuition fees in Scotland for RUK students. However, we recognise that from a pragmatic perspective the University has had to address this. Queen Margaret University has set a fee below the maximum level and is looking at ways of minimising the cost to individual RUK students, e.g. through second year entry. The University has committed to cash bursaries rather than fees discounts. This is good news as the Students’ Union view is that students need as much ready cash as possible to fund their studies.”
The need to change the fee level paid by students from the rest of the UK to study in Scotland has been prompted by changes to university funding brought forward by the UK Government and the consequential withdrawal of Scottish Government funding for RUK students.
The new tuition fee per year applies to students from England, Northern Ireland or Wales starting a full-time undergraduate course in 2012. Tuition fees will not be paid upfront or while RUK students are studying. Students from England, Wales and Northern Ireland can apply to the Student Loans Company for a tuition fee loan. This tuition fee loan is paid directly to the University by the Government and students only need to start repaying the loan once earning over £21,000 (or £15,795 in the case of students from Northern Ireland) after graduation, with all outstanding debt written off after 30 years.
In addition, Government grants are available, and it is estimated that up to a quarter of undergraduate students will benefit from extra financial support from 2012.
The fees apply to all full-time undergraduate programmes in all subjects. Current RUK students are unaffected. Scottish and EU students will continue to have fees paid by the Scottish Government on their behalf and are therefore not affected by this announcement.
Queen Margaret University’s indicative RUK fees cannot be confirmed until the Scottish Parliament has decided whether to approve the Scottish Government’s proposals. If so, they will be phased in from academic year 2012/13. Existing RUK students will not be affected by the changes.
