The LSE Council today decided that from 2012/13 the annual tuition fee for UK and EU undergraduates at the School will be £8,500.
The new fee package will enable LSE to replace the loss of teaching funding from the Government, increase the money spent on bursaries and widening participation and keep tuition costs down for students. It also reflects the concern expressed by many members of the LSE community about the extent, and the suddenness, of the increase of home/EU fees and the impact this may have on many students and their families.
Overall the Council has agreed to increase the annual amount spent on bursaries and discounts for students to over £2.2 million by 2014/15 and on widening participation and retention measures to £665,000 by 2014/15. Fifty per cent of additional fee income will be allocated to financial support and access measures and, based on current projections, nearly a third of students at LSE will be in line for a bursary.
The Council noted that the result of the vote by the School's Academic Board was extremely close with just one vote separating those in favour of a £9,000 fee (67) and those against (68). In light of this fact, no formal recommendation was made by the Academic Board to the LSE Council, which has decided on a package which has a lower than maximum headline fee but a large proportion of fee income being re-distributed to bursaries and access measures.
We are determined to preserve academic standards and ensure that all students with the ability to benefit are not deterred from applying to LSE. In recent years we have put a great deal of resource into widening participation activities and are delighted that we can now expand these .Our new fee package allows us to provide exceptional value for all students while continuing to target funding on the poorest.
For more details, please see the LSE press release Fees set
Professor Judith Rees, Director
25 May 2011