Impact Of Tuition Fees Rise On Student Enrolments In UK Universities - Essay Example

The paper "Impact of Tuition Fees Rises on Student Enrolments in UK Universities" is a worthy example of an essay on education. The recent years have seen changes in the UK’s tuition fee policies with a major focus on fee increment, especially in higher education. These changes have sparked a wide range of opinions and reactions with most people speculating that fee increments are bound to result in reduced participation. After all, this is the normal provision of societal settings that operate under the principle that price increment results in reduced sales and demand in general.

However, it is important to critically examine the effects of fee increment in order to make informed and appropriate conclusions. In 2012 tuition fee policies allowing universities to raise their fees up to £9,000 in the UK were passed sparking a wide range of reactions across the globe. Following the passing of these tuition fee policies, about 70 universities set their annual fee at the maximum level, £9,000 (Shift learning, 2012). However, more importantly, was the reaction from the students in relation to enrollment into UK universities.

The immediate reaction was a reduction of 17% in the number of first-year undergraduate students enrolling to UK universities (Howse, 2014, para.1). This corresponds to the expectations and speculations of research and the general population. This decline can be attributed to the fact that institutions of higher education in the UK host a wide range of students from different regions and backgrounds. As such, it is utterly difficult for some of the students to cope with such fee increments. According to research studies the years that followed the 2012 fee increment, have experienced a similar reaction with the number of international students enrolling to UK universities dropping significantly (Garner, 2014, para.1). Based on these different research findings it is evident that fee increment resulted in reduced enrollments from both domestic and international students.

However, some research studies speculated that owing to the rising demand for education, fee increments would have relatively little influence on the number of enrollments (Shift Learning, 2012). Nonetheless, such speculations have been refuted by the outcome of the 2012 fee increment policy. Additionally, other research studies have also shown that even a minor change in the amount of tuition fee has high effects on participation. For example, research shows that a fee increment of £1,000 is bound to result in approximately 3.

9 % participation decrease (Dearden, Fitzsimon, and Wyness, 2011). In response to the rising demand for education amid increased fees, students’ choice patterns are bound to change with an unfavorable outcome for UK universities. For instance, students may consider enrolling in other institutions that are non-profit or outside the UK entirely (Wilkins, Shams, and Huisman, 2013). Conversely, students may also consider other options outside higher education which also reduces university enrollment levels.

Conclusively, all the sources used in the compilation of this paper are in agreement with the argument that fee increment is bound to cause participation decrease. The conclusions are based on research studies investigating outcomes of the 2012 fee increment policies. As such their credibility is high leading to a certain conclusion that fee increments are bound to reduce enrollment levels of UK universities.