Rising Tuition Fees “Another Disincentive” Amidst Teacher Supply Crisis
Teacher supply crisis in the UK faces another barrier as tuition fees increase.
As the UK faces a deepening shortage of teachers, worries have arisen over how the rise in tuition fees will worsen the crisis.
UK students will pay more for university in England next year, as undergraduate tuition fees rise to £9,535 a year. They will rise in September of 2025.
The latest statistics from the Department for Education (DfE) from November last year, show that 5,292 of the 20,431 teachers within state-funded-schools who entered the profession three years earlier had already left their jobs, the most in 20 years.
Additionally, the DfE data reveals that 800 teachers quit their career every week. Over last year, 43,500 teachers left the education sector, representing one in 10 of all teaching staff.
Oxfordshire County Council, Councillor John Howson, Cabinet Member for Children, Education & Young People's Services, voiced concern over the current crisis saying:
“We're waiting for the figures for this September, but the figures for last September were probably the worst on record, and less than 20% of the places available for physics teacher training were filled last year.
“We do not expect all training places to have been filled this September, and that will be probably the 10th year that the government has missed its target for the number of teachers to train.”
He added that the rising tuition fees present “another disincentive” for those wishing to enter the teaching profession.
Within Oxfordshire this lack of teachers is compounded further due to the exceptional circumstances within the county. Howson expanded further: “We have an additional problem in that we have as many independent schools in the secondary sector as we have state schools, many of them educating children from outside Oxfordshire, but competing for the same teachers. Therefore, it's absolutely critical to us in Oxfordshire that the government trains enough teachers.”
The demand for teachers is clear across both Oxfordshire and the wider UK, but with less individuals willing to enter or remain in the profession, schools are facing significant challenges in maintaining adequate staffing levels.
These threats to staffing levels can have severe effects on both staff and students. When a school doesn’t have enough teaching or support staff, their only option is to increase class sizes.
It is thought that bigger classes can cause various problems:
Students can feel uncomfortable or overlooked in a big group,
Teachers’ stress levels may rise due to their increased workload,
With less time for one-on-one teaching, students suffer academically, and teachers aren’t as professionally fulfilled.
These professional deterrents, alongside the rising economic commitment bring into question - what else can be done to encourage people into teaching positions?
John Howson commented that it could be beneficial to have “another serious look at working conditions and working hours to see whether or not you can reduce the interim working time in terms of preparation and marking, that would probably be a good idea in terms of virtue signalling, and some good might come out of it to persuade school teachers back into the industry.”
Without intervention, the teacher shortage is likely to continue worsening, impacting students’ educational outcomes, job satisfaction for teachers and the overall quality of education in the UK.