Postgrad fees: do rising costs deter poorer students?

Posted by Phil Wales, LSE and SERC When undergraduate tuition fees were announced in 2010, many people worried that fees would put off those from poorer backgrounds from going to university. For those already at university and thinking about graduate study, fees have been a reality for years. What many people haven’t noticed, however, is the very rapid rise in the cost of postgrad courses: fees have increased by an average of 31.8 per cent between 2003-04 and 2008-09, from £3,232 to just over £4,261, well above inflation.