Don't know who need to hear this*, but reducing tuition fees for *mostly* online learning might seem like common sense, but in fact it's not...universities can't reduce fees for a host of reasons.

Bit of a #TuitionFees thread.

*Seems to be a lot of people.

1/

N.B. a): 'Tuition Fee' is a misnomer. It pays for academic time and expertise in teaching, but also cleaning and maintenance, administration, the library, tech, some research, widening participation bursaries, MH and other support. And management and marketing.

#TuitionFees

2/

N.B. b): Expensive to run courses (engineering, medicine etc) are subsidised by 'cheaper' ones (social sciences, arts/humanities). Having lower/variable fees messes this (and access issues) up, as does likely earnings. In short: the £9K+ sticker price is a mess.

#TuitionFees

3/

Distance/online learning involves WAY more than recording a talk and bunging it online: expensive tech, essential tech support, learning how to use it, screwing up, re-recording, adapting content to make it work/accessible, then running interactive sessions.

#TuitionFees

4/

It takes a day or more to write a 2-hour seminar and two hours to run it. To achieve the same outcomes online, it's the same time to write, plus a day of recording and setting up forums and webinars, plus hours engaging in them: i.e. treble the hours - or more.

#TuitionFees

5/

Many unis have borrowed hard to build big and fancy in order to attract students. They should have been more careful, but they've also been pushed in this direction by policy and competition - including rankings. It's not staff/students' fault, but it's there.

#TuitionFees

6/

So uni can't reduce fees because replacing F2F teaching costs more and it also undermines the whole way that a semi-equitable HE is administered and financed. And unis have debts.

For the record, we'd abolish fees and loans, have grants and a low grad tax.

#TuitionFees

8/End