Five Welsh universities to drop tuition fees to £7,500 or below

Five Welsh universities intend to drop tuition fees to £7,500 or below for the 2013-14 academic year, it has emerged.

It follows a decision by the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (Hefcw) to change the way it allocates student places.

The University of Glamorgan, Trinity St David, Cardiff Metropolitan, Newport and Swansea Metropolitan will cut fees.

Hefcw has also altered the way it rewards institutions which lower what they charge for their courses.

The funding council decides how many full-time first year undergraduate student places are awarded to each university in Wales for the the 2013-14 academic year.

Due to new arrangements announced in January, there are winners and losers.

Places on priority courses like sciences and technology are protected.

But places on arts and humanities-based courses are being reallocated to universities which drop their fees, or who meet Welsh government targets.

From September 2012, universities will be able to charge students up to £9,000 in fees.

Glyndwr University had already set a fee level below £7,500.

Aberystwyth University will potentially lose more than 500 students compared to 2012.

Like Cardiff, Swansea and Bangor, Aberystwyth opted not to drop its fees from the maximum £9,000.

In contrast, the University of Glamorgan could gain more than 800 students.

Hefcw said less money would be spent on paying tuition fee grants and the new system would protect research funding.

Last week, it emerged that most universities in Wales would see a small rise in funding for the next academic year because of the income generated from higher tuition fees.

But, in contrast, Glyndwr University will see a 20% cut in its budget.

Figures from Hefcw showed core funding to each institution dropping by an average of 37%.

But the balance is being made up by millions of pounds in student fees.