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The ?5,000-a-year figure bandied about for tuition fees in the UK does not bear scrutiny.

The private University of Buckingham charges ?1,800 a term - ?5,400 for a three-term year. It gets no public funds, so this sum accurately indicates economic cost. It follows that with a ?5,000 fee in a public university, the state would need to provide only ?400 funding for each place.

Students paying ?5,000 would be subsidising poorer students, more expensive departments or research funding. This is particularly true in arts faculties, where staff-student contact is 12-14 hours a week, compared with 26 for science, engineering and architecture. In fact, for ?5,400 a year, the middle classes could have private universities as general provision.

H. C. S. Ferguson
Pollockshields, Glasgow