The University for the Creative Arts (UCA) announced yesterday that it will be increasing its fees to £8,500 in 2012.

UCA has over 7,000 students across five campuses, including Epsom.

Thanks to an 80 per cent cut in government funding, the university will have to rely on student fees to cover the cost of its courses.

The new figure applies to all undergraduate courses at UCA, and is only £100 less than the national average of £8,600.

UCA student's union chair of trustees, Benjo Taylor said: “This figure was not unexpected considering the reckless manner in which the coalition Government has decided to attack funding on Higher Education institutions, particularly those specialising in the creative arts.

“Nevertheless, UCA Students’ Union is disappointed that the fees have had to be set at such a high level to maintain the existing quality of education.”

Professor Mark Hunt, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of UCA, said: “Student fees will provide our main source of funding for teaching and investing in the facilities needed to provide students with a high quality creative arts education.”

UCA hopes that the increase will not deter students from poorer families from going to university.

Under a new Government scheme, 164 scholarships of £3,000 will be available to UCA applicants in 2012. The university is also actively seeking sponsorship to further fund its scholarship programme.

The government recently confirmed that all 123 universities and colleges in England intend to charge over £6,000 per year from 2012.