Clegg suggests tuition fees cap

Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg has indicated that tuition fees will be capped in England and Wales, apparently contradicting the advice of the Browne Report.

In a Sunday morning interview with the BBC's Andrew Marr, the Liberal Democrat leader made his clearest statement yet on the government's plans for undergraduate tuition fees.

Mr Clegg reiterated that the government was still considering the Browne Report, and would take the “best parts of it” to rebuild a system to help the poorest students into higher education.

“I am uneasy about the idea that you have, in theory, unlimited fees, so we are looking at something that is more restrained,” Mr Clegg said.

The confirmation of a cap on tuition fees is likely to come as a relief to those concerned about the Lib Dems' position in the coalition government. A successful fight against a significant fee increase could help to regain support lost since the party's post-election deal with the Conservatives.

Mr Clegg's statement comes after a bout of Liberal Democrat backtracking on their graduate tax pledge, starting with business secretary Vince Cable declaring that his department would take “no action” on the graduate tax question.

NUS Scotland president Liam Burns told The Journal that a fee cap may not be as significant as some believe: “Nick Clegg better not believe for a minute that students are going to be placated by a doubling of the tuition fee cap rather than completely lifting it,” he said.

“He and his party made a simple and explicit promise to students to vote against any increase in fees.

“What a surprise that Lord Browne made some of the potentially devastating proposals ever witnessed in the education funding debate, only for the coalition government to come and 'save' us from such extreme measures.

"You could be forgiven for thinking that this has all been choreographed for some time now to make students grateful for being charged twice as much for their education.

"Nick Clegg’s mantra during the elections was "no more broken promises." Even if he forgets that, students in Edinburgh certainly won't."

Mr Burns also called on Mike Crockart, the Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West, to uphold his pledge to oppose a fee increase, saying: “I sincerely hope he recognises that a textbook exercise in expectation management is not going to fly with the thousands of students who he now represents.”

During the general election campaign, top Lib Dems including both Mr Cable and Mr Clegg signed pledges to back a graduate tax if they got into government, a measure that has yet to come to fruition.

Mr Cable attempted to allay criticism with an email to party members, titled 'Why I'm saying 'no' to the graduate tax', in which he claimed that a pure graduate tax was “not the way forward” and that it would “do nothing to reduce the deficit”. The email came in stark contrast to his speeches in July, when he first proposed the idea to funding chiefs.

Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Margaret Smith MSP told The Journal that the party “have always been serious about supporting students” and that “we look forward to considering the green paper being prepared by the Scottish Government to continue this debate in Scotland”.

Ms Smith expressed a desire to “ensure that we keep Scottish universities competitive and widen access to the poorest young people.

“Going to university must be decided on the ability to learn, not the ability to pay.”