TORIES AND TUITION FEES - EDUCATION FOR THE FEW NOT THE MANY

10.40.25am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 17th Jul 2003

The Conservatives when last in power hacked away at the student grant and student support in general.

Speaking against a Conservative motion on Student Tuition Fees at Bexley Council last night, Liberal Democrat councillor Nick O'Hare said:

The Conservatives when last in power hacked away at the student grant and student support in general. It makes a mockery of their manifesto commitment to urge the UK government to abolish tuition fees.

Their costings are laughable. The only money they have announced so far is to cover existing tuition fees- they have provided no solution for increasing investment in Higher Education beyond 2006. Their plans are already out of date and have missed the point of the current debate. Their so-called "savings" includes money that goes direct to universities (they would abolish the "postcode premium"), meaning a cut in student numbers and in funding for universities.

Their "savings" from ending expansion is based on University UK's costing of expanding the participation rate to 50% - it is a cumulative total and one-off saving which the Conservatives have mistakenly put in their costing as an annual saving.

Cllr Nick O'Hare

Nothing on grants-so no commitment to improve participation from under represented groups. 76% of those from professional backgrounds currently enter university, while just 18% of young people from manual and unskilled backgrounds go to university. The Government have promised to reintroduce grants, but at just £20per week this is lower than the £30 per week that A level students get in Education Maintenance Allowance. Neither the Government's nor the Conservatives plans will improve participation from under represented groups.

The education and Skills Select Committee report The Future of Higher Education rejects key elements of the January white paper on universities and call on ministers to scrap plans for an admissions regulator, improve academic pay, reverse their bias towards a few research universities, and raise grants for the poorest students to £5,000.

The committee failed to make any mention of their opposition to tuition fees. Only Paul Holmes, the Liberal Democrat Member, refused to agree the report and produced instead a minority report outlining Liberal Democrat proposals to abolish fees altogether and introduce a £2'000 maintenance grant for less well of students. Pressure must be brought to bear on the Government to think again about their 'top up fee' proposals. This is not helped by a Commons Select Committee ignoring crucial evidence from leading academics demonstrating this policy is counter productive.