Scrap tuition fees for UK engineering students

Waiving tuition fees for UK engineering students will increase the number of professional engineers and provide much-needed resources for the sector, according to construction industry business group, the Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE).

“The industry is working to close the gap in the salaries between engineering and other comparable professions to make engineering careers more attractive. Until this is achieved we need, as a country, to incentivise engineering as a career,” said Nelson Ogunshakin, ACE chief executive.

“Waiving tuition fees for engineering courses will increase the demand for those courses and ultimately increase the number of professional engineers the nation so badly needs,” he added.

Ogunshakin pointed out that a similar system has already been implemented in the United States, and the UK government has for some time been offering this incentive for those completing teacher training.

“This issue has also been raised recently in parliament during the current Universities and Skills Committee hearings on engineering skills - a positive sign that the change is coming closer,” he said.

Ogunshakin also stressed that we are entering a critical period for our education system, and that it was “maybe our last chance to get these policies right before highly-skilled jobs start to disappear overseas.”