---

Higher Education Fees

Let me proceed. Of course increasing the graduate contribution is bound to have an effect—it is an additional cost—to graduates. I therefore want to summarise the steps we are taking to make sure that this happens in a fair and equitable way. First of all, no full-time students will pay upfront tuition fees and part-time students doing their first degree will for the first time—unlike under the last Government—have the opportunity to obtain concessional finance under the student loan scheme arrangements. Yesterday, after discussing the issue with the Open university and others, I made a further announcement that we will increase the range of that access from students spending a third of their time in education, as originally proposed, to those spending a quarter of their time in it. That will widen enormously the number of part-time students who will have access to supporting finance in order to pursue their education.