ULSTER University is testing the limits of the law.

In a briefing to staff, it has warned it may introduce new charges for graduation to help plug a £5 million gap in its budget, which it has largely blamed on Stormont’s refusal to raise tuition fees.

These new charges would be for ceremonies, not for graduating itself.

UK competition law forbids universities from withholding degrees for non-tuition fee debts, such as unpaid accommodation bills or library fines.

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Ulster would still have to send students their graduation certificate, whether they paid the new ceremony charge or not.

The law it risks breaking is the Higher Education (Northern Ireland) Order 2005, which bans universities from topping up their tuition fee income with extra course charges.

Ulster would undoubtedly argue a ceremony charge is optional and therefore does not break the law, but the authorities may disagree.

Universities across the UK insisted they could withhold degrees for unpaid charges until the Competition and Markets Authority slapped them down hard in 2015.

Banning extra charges is a fundamental part of the tuition fee system.

In 1995, when universities depended almost entirely upon government grants, the Conservative government announced it was to slash........

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