Hello all,

At the beginning of June I asked about student fee structures in universities'
Continuing Education/Lifelong Learning departments.  I received responses from
six universities (seven including Lancaster), covering England, Scotland and
Wales.

As you might well expect, this produced seven different pictures, though
perhaps not as unrelated as some of us might have expected!

One respondent admitted their framework of fees has become rather confused, and
another that they seem to have slightly different schemes each year.

In Wales, any student who meets the personal criteria is eligible to apply for
a p/t fee waiver provided they are taking a minimum of 10 credits which
contribute to a recognised undergraduate HE qualification: this is obviously
reflected in the fee structures for the Welsh institutions.  Am I right that in
England and Scotland the threshold is much higher (60 credits)???  One English
and one Scottish institution mention they have a (the?) fee-waiver scheme in
operation.

Only two universities maintain the "old" pattern of of a full fee, a first
concessionary rate for retired or over 60s, and a second concessionary rate for
those on benefit.  One university ended their age/retired concession last year:
there were some complaints, but from people whom the dept judged able to pay!
It isn't clear that enrolments have been affected by the removal of the over
60s rate.  One of the two universities still operating an over 60s rate is
reducing the discount from 25% to 20%. 

Most of the responding departments now have a full fee and only one discounted
concessionary rate.  The discount varies from 10% to 50%, though not always
applicable to all courses (e.g. no discounts for day courses or for IT
courses).  Most departments do, however, offer some flexibility.  The
concessionary rate is consistently available for those on state benefit (though
the difficulty of state pensioners not declaring personal pensions is noted by
a couple of respondents).  One institution offers the concessionary rate only
to those on means-tested benefit.  Most do allow full-time students to pay the
concessionary rate.

Two respondents say they always insist on seeing evidence for concessionary
status, one asks unemployed students for their NI number.  One department is
actually considering means-testing students!  For the rest, while they reserve
the right to ask for evidence, in practice there is neither the time nor the
staff to check, and students are taken at their word.  One institution has a
special arrangement for long-term unemployed whereby their fee is waived and
only a 3 pound admin charge is levied: these students have to have a form
stamped by the job centre.

Only one institution provides bursaries to CE students from its own funds (a
trust fund), while another sometimes has bursaries for particular courses
funded _ad hoc_ by other organisations.

None of the respondents explicitly fund the discounts offered: a certain number
of enrolments in the concessionary categories are allowed when doing fee income
projections.

Only two institutions mention joint courses: in one fee rates are in most cases
those set by the university department, in the other they are determined by the
joint provider (WEA or County Council).

Some institutions charge a premium for IT courses, others don't.  (Others
didn't say!)

Only two respondents could state that their fees related to the undergraduate
tuition fee: in one case the CE fee is 59% of the undergraduate fee (which by
my calculations is a shade over 50 pounds for a 10 credit course): I suspect it
is more a matter that we tend not to think in these terms than there being no
relation to the undergraduate fee. 

Only two of the respondents mentioned how they determine increases in student
fees: for the first, in 2000/2001 there is a link to the increase in the
undergraduate fee, and CE fees will rise by around 3%, though wanting to stick
to round pounds mean some fees will increase by over 3%.  For the second, an
institution with a small non-urban catchment area, they believe that if they
raise their fees in line with the institution as a whole, they would lose most
of their students.  They recognise, however, that if they keep their fees low,
then the institution will be very reluctant to accept a two-tier structure for
students on any part-time degrees that they might wish to introduce.  An
interesting point, I thought: could CE/Lifelong Learning departments grow
through being the bargain basement for degrees? (all first class quality goods,
of course!  How do we do it at the price?!?!)

Hope you find this information interesting or even useful!

Andrew

-- 
Dr A J Stevenson
http://www.lancs.ac.uk/staff/exaajs/
Departmental Administrator
Department of Continuing Education   http://www.lancs.ac.uk/users/conted/
Lonsdale College
Lancaster University
Lancaster LA1 4YN
Tel.: 01524-592640
Fax: 01524-592448



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