UK universities have been urged to stop charging non-refundable deposits to prospective postgraduate students amid warnings that the issue will become increasingly sensitive during the cost-of-living crisis.
The University and College Union said the practice of charging thousands of pounds to applicants wishing to secure their places on taught master’s programmes had developed “under the radar” and was reflective of an “increasingly deregulated admissions process”.
“Institutions can no longer in good conscience oversee a system which restricts access and takes money from those wishing to pursue their education goals,” the union’s general secretary, Jo Grady, wrote in a letter calling on Universities UK president Steve West to review the situation.
