Cap on tuition fees essential for equality, says NUS

The National Union of Students (NUS) launched a new campaign calling for a review of the Higher Education funding system currently in place last month.

The fifteen page report, 'Broke and Broken', reveals inherent flaws in the 2004 Higher Education Act, and demands all-out change—rather than simply an increase in the tuition fees cap—to be considered before the next general election.

NUS President Wes Streeting comments on the “severe” impact such measures would have on student life: “When so many students are compelled by circumstance to carry out paid work for so many hours, the direct impact on the quality of their learning experience will be severe.

“It is imperative that our Higher Education funding system should seek to limit this impact, not to place even greater financial pressures on students through wrongly distributed financial support and the acquisition of huge debts.”

The top-up fee imposed four years ago is due to be reconsidered before the academic year 2010/11, with many government officials calling for the cap—currently set at £3,000 and subject to inflation—to be raised in order to aid the development of an "education market."

Despite initial expectations that the fees charged by British universities would vary according to the quality of education and services provided, figures show that the majority of institutions are demanding the full amount from their undergraduate students. If the cap was raised to £7,000, NUS suggests, the market would become considerably more diverse, with the average university charging in the region of £4000 per annum.

Not only would raising student debt deter many prospective students from applying to Higher Education altogether, but a 53 per cent increase in students taking on part-time jobs since 1997 to fund their escalating living expenses suggests that it could be potentially detrimental to their studies.

'Broke and Broken' is bidding for an alternative policy to be produced – a policy Mr Streeting claims will be worked out over the next few months.

He said: “In a situation where the fee cap was raised to £7,000, a highly talented individual who enters public service or academia might never pay off their debt, consigned to a lifetime of ‘top-up’ payments to the exchequer.

“By contrast, any student, whether highly talented or not, who obtains a higher education and goes on to earn a huge salary in the City of London will be able to pay off their debt in a few years and go on to enjoy the high salary without making any further contribution.

“By far the most socially just alternative is to link the individual’s contribution to the outcome they enjoy, with no way to escape their responsibility.

“The challenge is to create a higher education system that has the potential to be transformative for individuals and for society. This challenge cannot be met under a continuation of the present system or anything similar, and therefore a much more substantial change of direction is urgently required.”

The full report can be downloaded from www.nus.org.uk.