Minister says degree costs are 'burden on taxpayer'

The Universities Minister David Willetts said today that the cost to the taxpayer of degree courses had to be tackled, in what was seen as a sign that students may have to pay higher fees.

Speaking to The Guardian, he said that the current system was "unsustainable" and in need of "radical change".

And he warned that the cost of hundreds of thousands of students' degree courses was a "burden on the taxpayer that had to be tackled".

"My view is that it is not a matter of simply changing the fees," Mr Willetts said.

"The system doesn't contain strong incentives for universities to focus on teaching and the student experience, as opposed to research."

The Tories' Liberal Democrat coalition partners fought the election promising to scrap tuition fees and are not expected to back any move to raise them.

A review commissioned by the Labour government is still pending into whether student tuition fees should rise from the current £3,225 a year.

Mr Willetts said he did not want to pre-judge Lord Browne's review, but added that students should consider university fees "more as an obligation to pay higher income tax" than a debt.

Mr Willetts stressed later that he was not assuming student fees would rise and said that was a matter for the Browne Review.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We should think much more imaginatively. What I want is something that does reduce the burden on the taxpayer, and above all improve the quality of the students' experience and improve the teaching."

He added: "I'm not assuming fees should rise. That's a matter for John Browne."

Mr Willetts said students might, for example, study at a local further education college for an external degree from a university.

Mr Willetts insisted there was a "problem" with the current system.

He explained: "We've looked at the books, in the end, the Labour government left us with an assumption of hundreds of millions of pounds of cuts higher in education without any idea of how to deal with them.

"But what I don't want to do is go and inflict misery on students.

"What I want to do is take this as an opportunity to how we can reform our universities so they offer a better deal for students."

Enabling some students to be taught at a local further education college for an external degree from a university, would reduce living costs, he said.

He added: "That means that you don't have the costs of living away from home but you do get a prestigious degree and that's actually how we spread our access to higher education."

Mr Willetts refused to be drawn on whether the proposals would create a two-tier degree system and insisted they would instead broaden access.

He explained: "This is a way you can have more people going to university, which is an aspiration, more rewards for high quality teaching."