<P> Tuition fees were first introduced across the entire United Kingdom in September 1998 under the Labour government as a means of funding tuition to undergraduate and postgraduate certificate students at universities, with students being required to pay up to £ 1,000 a year for tuition . However, as a result of the establishment of devolved national administrations for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, different arrangements now exist with regard to the charging of tuition fees in each of the countries of the United Kingdom . </P> <P> In May 1996, Gillian Shephard, Secretary of State for Education and Employment, commissioned an inquiry, led by the then Chancellor of the University of Nottingham, Sir Ron Dearing, into the funding of British higher education over the next 20 years . This National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education reported to the new Labour Government, in the summer of 1997, stating additional billions of funding would be needed over the period, including £ 350 million in 1998 - 9 and £ 565 million in 1999 - 2000, in order to expand student enrolment, provide more support for part - time students and ensure an adequate infrastructure . The committee, as part of its brief, had controversially investigated the possibility of students contributing to the cost of this expansion, either through loans, a graduate tax, deferred contributions or means testing state assistance, as their report notes: </P>

When did student fees start in the uk