More than a third of universities in England will charge the maximum allowed tuition of £9,000, or nearly $14,400, beginning next year, according to details of new tuition agreements published by the national agency responsible for ensuring equal access to higher education, The Guardian reported.

All institutions seeking to charge more than £6,000 a year must have their plans, spelling out how they intend to insure that students from disadvantaged backgrounds are not deterred by the higher rates, approved annually by the Office for Fair Access, which published the initial agreements on Tuesday. Agreements for all but two higher-education institutions in England have been approved and, according to the fair-access agency, the amount that institutions will spend on measures to guarantee fair access, including scholarships and financial aid, will increase from $650-million this coming academic year to more than $960-million the following year, when the higher rates go into effect.

In a statement, the Russell Group, which represents Britain’s 20 leading research-intensive universities, emphasized how much its institutions would be spending on outreach programs and the financial-aid packages they offer, adding that it was “concerned that the access agreements risk focusing too much on regulation rather than resolving the real problems: underachievement at school and poor advice on the best choices of A-level subjects and university degree course.”