My friend's son is currently attending a music college that introduced a "one off payment" of £300, to cover administrative fees, photocopying, CDs and other miscellaneous items.
This "one off" payment has now extended to a payment every year, with relatively threatening phone calls made to students who are either late with this payment or unable to pay it due at all. Today, a tutor had to tell one of his students to leave the room as he had not paid this top-up fee (but had, incidentally, paid his University fees for that instalment) - very embarrassing for all concerned.
Not only have the regularity of the fees changed, but the use of the money has also changed, without notifying the students. A lot of the "photocopying charges" are now moot as it is uploaded to the student server for people to download, as have many of the CDS, etc etc. The school point blank refuses to give a breakdown of what this money is used for, or where it goes.
I personally don't think this is right, nor have the school justified their reasons for having such a fee. In fact, more costs have been incurred since the fee has started (i.e.) extra charges for rooms, private lessons, etc.
Questions have been asked by the students, but the school will not answer them fully or in depth.
My question to you mumsnetters is... what next? How would one take this further? Have the school gone about this correctly? Would the press be a good place to start?
Any and all help would be most appreciated!