Top-up fees: A realistic alternative

Later this year, the government will launch their long awaited review into the future funding of our universities. On Wednesday 18 March, we held a lobby of parliament to present to MPs the basic foundations of what we consider to be a fair and viable alternative to top-up fees.

Despite claims to the contrary, NUS has not dropped its long standing opposition to top-up fees. Yes, we are prepared to accept the notion of a graduate contribution to the costs of higher education – but we remain absolutely opposed to the present system, which we believe is detrimental to students and has the potential to be hugely damaging to higher education if it is continued and extended. We want the forthcoming review to be about finding an alternative to top-up fees that is fairer for students, but still generates the kind of income the sector so badly needs. At the same time, we need to find ways to restrain and reverse the market logic that has been allowed to run riot within government policy during the last few years.

Delegates at our conference last April voted to stop simply arguing for “free education” in England, and decided instead that we should consult with our members and bring to the table some radical, imaginative solutions that will be better and fairer for students than regressive and damaging market forces. As a result of this consultation, we have now identified five fundamental principles upon which a fair funding system for higher education in England can be built.

Firstly, we need to reform the overcomplicated and unfair system of financial support. Loans and grants have to cover both living costs and tuition fees, and the extra financial support available in the form of bursaries varies hugely from one university to the next. NUS believes that all financial support should be based on how much a student needs it, not where they happen to be studying. Students should not have to use any of this financial support to pay for course costs – it should cover their living costs alone.

Secondly, we call for a change to the current state of play, whereby students have to pay tuition fees and top-up fees up front – meaning that they are accruing thousands of pounds of debt before they even start work. NUS believes that higher education should be free at the point of use for all students. Graduates would then make a contribution to higher education while they work. The amount paid by graduates would depend on how much they are benefitting financially from their own use of the higher education system.

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Under the current system, if a student leaves a course after, say, two years of study, they have nothing to show for the level of achievement they have already attained.

This brings me to our third point: more use should be made of flexible units of academic credit, so that a student’s past achievements are taken into account regardless of whether they have finished a full degree course. Part-time students would also benefit from more flexible forms of learning.

Fourthly, it is bad for the Government to be lending so much money to students in order for them to pay their fees – particularly in the current economic climate. Lending this money at a real-terms interest rate of 0% is especially unhealthy for the economy. NUS believes that an alternative funding system should avoid such inefficiencies, so that maximum resources can be put into teaching, learning and student support. One way to achieve this would be to adopt the post-graduation system of contribution outlined above.

Finally, we want to point out that, while students and graduates benefit hugely from higher education, so do the government and businesses. Without the high-level skills offered by graduates, our economy would grind to a halt.

Therefore, NUS believes that the government and businesses should make a greater contribution to higher education. If we accept that individuals should pay towards a world-class higher education system, then so should the other beneficiaries.

Top-up fees remain an appalling system, and NUS is going to work to bring them down. We now have the basis of a credible alternative to bring to the table: an alternative which means that we will not be sitting on the sidelines when the forthcoming review of fees is carried out. With your help, I firmly believe we can make a decisive difference.