Edinburgh South MP stands by tuition cap

Following calls for a review by the government on tuition fees in England and Wales this year, Nigel Griffiths, Labour MP for Edinburgh South, has told The Journal he intends to stand by the current cap.

Mr Griffiths defended the cap on tuition fees, believing that an increase in fees in England and Wales will have an adverse effect on Scottish universities.

He told The Journal: “Lifting the cap would ensure that those universities were more highly funded than Scottish institutions and this would damage the ability of Scottish universities to provide world-leading higher education.

“It is extremely unlikely that the present Scottish Government would find the extra money to bring university expenditure in Scotland up to the level of those institutions charging top-up fees, and this could increase the pressure on Scottish universities to introduce some form of student contribution in Scotland.”

It has been reported that more than half of universities want to raise the cap to at least £5,000, or to be able to set their own level of fees without an upper limit in order to make British institutions more competitive. Imperial College London has even proposed an increase to £15,000.

The National Union of Students (NUS) has warned that if tuition fees were to reach £7,000 per year, the average student debt would be £32,000.

With the current fees level, less than 4 per cent of Scottish students study outside of Scotland. The prospect of a high increase in debt means this percentage is not likely to increase, particularly in the current recession.

Griffiths added: “The main danger is that raising the cap would overturn the present set-up and replace it with one that creates a real market in higher education that could give students an incentive to search for a cheaper institution, rather than a leading institution.

“I am particularly concerned because the Sutton Trust published research recently that suggests that two thirds of people who do go on to higher education cited money worries as a concern.”

It has been ascertained that raising the cap could lead to a market of differently priced courses, with the more prestigious universities being likely to charge more.

The NUS believes a fairer fee system would involve repayments linked to later earnings.

In the run-up to the general election in 2010, the prospect of reviewing fees is a sensitive area for Mr Griffiths and his opponents, as roughly 36 percent of properties in the south of Edinburgh have HMO licenses, indicating a high density of student residents.

At the last election in 2005 Mr Griffiths beat his closest rivals, the Liberal Democrats, by only 405 votes.