Tuition fees ‘biggest contributing factor to inflation’

Higher tuition fees are the largest single contributing factor to inflation, a report by the Office of National Statistics has found.

The Consumer Prices Index measure of inflation rose from 2.2 per cent to 2.7 per cent last month – its first rise since July.

0.36 percent of this 0.5 per cent rise came from education.

The £1.3 billion per year savings that were projected to be made from the fee increases will be “mostly taken up” by the extra annual spending created by this inflation, according to the Higher Education Policy Institute.

The HEPI report estimated that the inflationary aspect of higher fees would range anywhere from £420 million to £1.15 billion.

“[The government] told us that trebled tuition fees were a necessity to save money”, said Liam Burns, president of the National Union of Students, “but it will actually cost ordinary taxpayers billions more.”

“The government was determined to abdicate responsibility for university education and got its sums badly wrong in a way that affects not just students but all of us”, Burns continued.

“The student movement has been saying for quite some time that this hike in tuition fees is wrong for students”, said Cat Gray, Wellbeing Officer at the University of Manchester, speaking on BBC Radio Five.

“I think these figures today on inflation demonstrate that this is actually really wrong for the economy too”.