Bournemouth University (BU) has today announced it will be charging tuition fees of £8,200 for the majority of its degrees, and £9,000 for its flagship courses.

BU will charge the maximum in areas like tourism, computer animation, TV and journalism.

The university said the fees: “Recognise the global reputation of those courses, together with their cost of delivery and competitive demand for student places.”

The Government had predicted tuition fees would be £7,500 on average across the country - and said £9,000 fees could only be charged in exceptional cases.

However BU has followed in the footsteps of the vast majority of that universities that have declared their fees so far - the average is running at around £8,600.

BU said there will be a £6,000 fee for the majority of its foundation degrees, which are predominantly delivered at partner colleges like Kingston Mauward.

BU Vice Chancellor Professor John Vinney said: “The fees and the support packages reflect our commitment to offering students a high quality learning experience, continued investment in our facilities and infrastructure, and excellent value for the investment that BU students are making in their future.

“We pride ourselves on our links to the professions, and our new fees structure will ensure that we can continue to offer our students high quality teaching by professionally qualified and internationally recognised academics engaged in globally-relevant research.”

The fees will be all-inclusive and there will be no additional charges for essential elements of the course.

The fees were developed after consultation with the university’s student’s union.

In a university statement, president Toby Horner said: “SUBU believes that the withdrawal of teaching grants on all programmes (except Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) is a great challenge.

“SUBU will continue to work closely with the university to attract a wide range of students from all backgrounds with the potential to succeed.”

Three alliance members – Bradford, Liverpool John Moores and Oxford Brookes – have gone for the £9,000 maximum on all their courses.

Bournemouth’s regional rivals that have declared so far, like Bath, Portsmouth and Southampton, have gone for an average of £8,660.

What do you think about the fees? Place your comments below or email stephen.bailey@bournemouthecho.co.uk