Government proposes two-year accelerated degrees with cheaper tuition fees

The government has put forward proposals for shorter and cheaper degrees than the traditional three-year courses designed to reduce the cost of going to university.

University minister Jo Johnson has outlined the plans for degrees that would cost £5,500 less and claimed it would benefit students by £25,000 when combined with an average yearly salary earned ahead of those on a three-year course.

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The accelerated degrees, pencilled in to be offered from September 2019 in England, would also promise the same standard of teaching.

“For too long we have been stuck with a system that has increasingly focused on offering only one way of benefiting from higher education, via the classic three year degree programme,” said Johnson.

“The passage of the Higher Education and Research Act this year has finally enabled us to break the mould of this one-size-fits-all system so students have much more choice over how they learn. Many will want to stick with the classic three year university experience, but for highly motivated students hungry for a faster pace of learning and a quicker route into or back into work, at lower overall cost, two year degrees will be well worth considering.”

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The lower cost also means that graduates are also more likely to repay the full loan amount while the shorter time frame is expected to attract mature students and widen participation.

Universities will be able to charge more per year than for the current three-year degree, but overall it will work out cheaper to study for two years. It’s hoped the change in fees will increase the number of shorter courses offered by universities.