| Fees and Finance |
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UNIVERSITY FEES – There is an alternative!!!!
There has been a great deal anguish poured out through the media in recent months over the prospect of Tuition fees of £9,000 pa at most universities from September next year – and, many potential students are overwhelmed with the prospect of enormous mountains of debt waiting to eat into their meagre post-graduation salaries. So much so, that many are contemplating not going to university at all. Yet, it doesn’t have to be this way – there are alternatives. Many FE colleges will offer attractive degree courses at much lower fees, and serious applicants should have a look at what the private sector has to offer. There are many outstanding providers of higher education in the private sector, and some have really exciting offers that will put their students in a ‘win-win’ situation.
Nationwide Independent College of Higher Education (NICHE) is one of the most innovative providers in the private sector. As they are not funded by HEFCE (Higher education Funding Council for England) they are not capped or restricted in the number of students they enrol. They work in collaborative partnerships with established universities, so their degree programmes are guaranteed to be of the same quality as the universities that validate their programmes. Perhaps their greatest advantage in the present climate is that they have absolute control over their fee structure, and are able to offer degree programmes in flexible and imaginative ways that will appeal to many students, especially mature students. Alongside flexibility of delivery they offer flexibility of fee payments – offering schemes for students to pay their fees by instalments, and holding out the possibility of graduating with little or no debt! For those who register on degree programmes staring in October 2011 they also offer to freeze fees at their 2011 level for the following three years! – Their full time fees for 2011-12 are set at £5000 pa, which, though it is higher than the present public university fee for this year, will be extremely attractive over the following two academic years when they continue to charge only £5000 while most of their rivals charge £9000 pa. A full time three year programme with NICHE spread over the period 2011-14 will cost £15,000 as opposed to a typical cost of £21,500 with most universities. Add to this the NICHE offer of payment by instalments and the attractions of this approach become obvious. Typically, after a deposit of £1000, students have a number of payment methods that can be as little as £80 per week – an amount that can be managed by most students who are working their way through their degree, or who are supported by parents or employers. There are pro rata fee schemes for part time students on offer too.
All courses will be delivered by highly-qualified and experienced academics, and each programme is quality assured by the partner universities involved. Delivery is often available in different parts of the country, making it possible for many students to stay at home, and often in their current jobs. NICHE uses a range of tried and tested delivery models to ensure that most students can study successfully where they are, and by incorporating their previous achievements and work experience. These include Work-Based Learning, Distance Learning, summer schools, telephone tutorials, local study groups, and traditional lectures and seminars. All of these can be blended together to provide flexible learning packages that are designed to accommodate most student’s circumstances.
“It all sounds too good to be true” says John Morahan, Principal of NICHE, “but we have a number of advantages which make it possible for us to offer these programmes. The two key factors are that we are not limited by the constraints on numbers and finances that traditional providers are dealing with at the moment, and secondly, we don’t have the heavy overheads and costs of the larger established institutions”
If there is a downside, it is in the limited range of courses and subjects available. Whilst there is a reasonable range of choice, it will not meet the needs of all potential students. The college offers those courses which reflect the strength, interests, and experience of their staff, and will take some years to build up to a wider level of provision. Having said that, there is still an attractive level of choice available, including degrees in Music, Counselling, Law, Psychology, and an innovative range of courses in faith-based areas such as Church Leadership, Ministry, and Applied Christian Studies.
NICHE is a private provider of further and higher education, and, as such, we receive no direct funding from the Government. Consequently, our fee structure is quite different to those normally found in colleges and universities. We believe that our fee structure is attractive, reasonable, and affordable, and we have designed it for simplicity. All of our courses are structured around ‘Guided Learning Hours’ (GLH) – this is a mechanism used by all colleges and universities in response to the requirements of the government agencies which determine the appropriate length of all courses. We have chosen to operate a average rate of £7.50 per GLH in order to fix the appropriate fee for each course. So, for example, the fee for a course lasting 20 Hours at £7.50 would be £150. All students may pay their course fees in full at the point of registration (Except International Students who must comply with new Home Office regulations). However, we do recognise that many students will find it difficult to pay all of their fees at once, particularly during the current economic crisis. There are a number of possible routes open to all students wishing to pay their fees:
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