Tuition fee rises 'will increase student debt'

Students may find it more difficult to get rid of their debt and improve their credit rating if tuition fees are increased, it has been suggested.

The system should be adapted so that it improves the opportunities available to all potential students, rather than increasing fees, according to the University and College Union (UCU).

Increasing the financial barriers to university entry is not the way to deliver the best system, the UCU general-secretary Sally Hunt has claimed.

She was commenting on recent proposals by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) to improve the UK's higher education competitiveness, which included providing tuition fee loans at the government's cost of borrowing to deliver savings of £1.4 billion.

Ms Hunt explained: "The proposals in the CBI report offer absolutely nothing new and merely list the obvious ways to increase student debt.

"Raising tuition fees and the interest rates of student loans is not the answer during a recession."