As universities, prospective students and the government await the verdict of Lord Browne's inquiry into university funding, figures have been released claiming to show that the UK is already among the world's most expensive places to study.

The claim:

The Independent, The Daily Mail and the Telegraph claimed that England was “set to become the world's most expensive country for students”.

Their source was a press release from the Union of Colleges and Universities (UCU) quoting data from the OECD's recent publication Education at a Glance 2010.

The UCU suggests that English universities are the fourth most expensive in the world, and that if Lord Browne's review increases the fees to £5000 or more, as he is expected to, “England will become the most expensive country in the world to get a degree at a public university”.

Analysis

This seems to be an accurate interpretation of the OECD's figures, which are not accompanied by substantial warnings about their reliability or relevance.

The only significant complicating factor that Full Fact can highlight is that these comparisons do not take into account private universities, which in most countries are far more expensive.

The UK's solitary private institution has no substantial impact on England's figures. But in the USA 33 per cent of universities, including all eight Ivy League establishments, are private.

When these are included, the USA's average fees rise from £3,752 to £7,093 – more than the £5000 quoted in the press, but below forecasts made by many commentators.

It should also be mentioned that the OECD data also suggests that “public subsidies for education in tertiary education” constitute a higher proportion of education spending in England than anywhere else.

But these “generous” loans and grants do not alter the fundamental accuracy of the claim.

Conclusion

As far as Full Fact can tell, claims made in the newspapers check out.

Perhaps the press should have specified more clearly that the measure was restricted to publicly funded universities, but the thrust of the articles still stand.

We have contacted authorities on tertiary education to be sure that important caveats or alternative interpretations haven't been overlooked.

But unless we are alerted to something that has been overlooked, Full Fact can give this one an all-clear.*

Edgar Gerrard Hughes

*UPDATE: a spokesperson from the Russell Group has got back to Full Fact stressing the points made in this article about the significance of subsidies, and suggesting that this factor makes it inappropriate to dub English universities the world's most expensive.

The OECD data does indeed include a caveat that the data "does not take into account the grants, subsidies and loans that partially or fully offset the student's tuition fees."

In light of this, we have downgraded this warning in the OECD's report, we have downgraded the rating from 4 to 3.