Oxbridge: 'We are not social security offices'

The Chancellor of Oxford University has claimed that students should be paying more despite an NUS survey revealing that the average student debt is set to rise to more than £20,000 by 2010.

Lord Chris Patten has called for the government to abolish the “intolerably” low cap which holds tuition fees at their current level, claiming that the government is treating universities as “social security offices”.

The former Conservative minister, speaking at the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ annual conference in London, said: “It is surely a mad world in which parents or grandparents are prepared to shell out tens of thousands of pounds to put their children through private schools to get them into universities, and then object to them paying a tuition fee of more than £3,000 when they are there.”
 
In response to the Patten’s comments, Wes Streeting, president of the NUS, said: “It is astonishing that, in the middle of a credit crunch, Chris Patten is proposing that hard-working families pay even more towards the cost of higher education.”

An NUS survey, published last week, concluded that students graduating under the current capped-fee policy would already find themselves more than £20,000 in the red on graduating from university. In addition, a recent survey conducted by NatWest bank has estimated that, including living expenses, the actual cost of obtaining a degree is more likely to break the £30,000 mark.

When asked at what level he would like to see the fees for Oxford university set, Patten stated that it was his belief that no restrictions should be enforced and that institutions should be given the freedom to set their tuition fees as they felt appropriate. However, The University and College Union (UCU) strongly oppose Lord Patten’s proposal.

Sally Hunt, general secretary of the UCU, said: “Lord Patten's view that parents should embrace the removal of the university tuition fee cap is not one shared by the general public. A recent YouGov poll revealed that, as well as opposing any increase in fees, the majority of people in Britain back a university funding system that is at no cost to the student or their family.”

Patten states that without additional funds, universities such as Oxford and Cambridge cannot hope to compete with the multi-million dollar American education system; tuition fees at Harvard for the current academic year are $32,557. Those opposed to the proposal to allow universities to set their own tuition fees have pointed out that, unlike Ivy League Universities, Oxford and Cambridge receive more than £350 million of taxpayers’ money each year.

At Cambridge University a similar battle has played out between the vice-chancellor, Alison Richard and secretary of state for universities and skills, John Denham over equality in the university application process. Dr Richard came under fire after complaining of Whitehall "meddling" and the government pressure to "fix problems of social mobility".

The vice-chancellor said: "Elite institutions are not engines for promoting social justice. We try to reach out the best students, whatever their background. One outcome of that is that we can help to promote social mobility."

Dr Richard's comments, however, were attacked by Denham who replied that he disagreed "profoundly" with Dr Richard. Vice-chancellors at other universities added their voices to the debate, with one claiming: "The government gives me a cheque every year. I have a public duty to do what the government says."

But according to Varsity, Cambridge's independent student newspaper, staff and students at the university support the vice-chancellor's comments.

"We agree that we have a duty to help disvantaged students, but this is not our primary goal," said Geoff Parks, Cambridge head of admissions.

The switch from the grant-based system of funding higher education to the current loan-based scheme now means that debt is an inevitable part of life for the majority of students. The level of student debt has increased by more than 500 per cent since 1994, when a study carried out by Barclays Bank found that the average graduate left university owing just £2,212.

The increase in student debt can partly be attributed to the rising cost of living but has also been affected by the current government policies surrounding tuition fees.

Previously capped at £1125, universities in England and Northern Ireland can now charge students up to £3,000 in tuition fees. While the fees charged by universities in Scotland and Wales have also been subject to an increase, the cost to students studying in their own country has remained lower than in England due to national governing bodies subsidising higher education fees.

In 2000, the Scottish parliament made the decision not to ask students to contribute toward the payment of their fees and continues to fully subsidise fees for Scottish students alone studying in Scotland.