University sector calls on Labour to raise tuition fees to ‘stabilise the ship’

6 comments

1. (Article)

   —

   A Labour government should take immediate steps to stabilise the UK’s university system, raising the annual £9,250 tuition fee in line with inflation, the head of the sector’s main lobby group has said.

   Vivienne Stern, chief executive of Universities UK, which represents more than 140 universities, said if Labour wins rapid action would be needed to avoid the sector being left in limbo as the new administration beds in.

   “The worry is that there is an 18-month review process that delivers no substantial change for two or three years. We’d argue for a two-step approach: do something to stabilise the ship, then address the question of more fundamental changes,” she told the Financial Times.

   Labour said in its election manifesto that higher education was “in crisis” and that the current funding settlement did “not work for the taxpayer, universities, staff, or students”, but has failed to provide details of how it would address the problems if elected.

   The sector is battling financial headwinds caused by a sharp decline in international student fees and a decade-long freeze of domestic tuition fees.

   The cap on fees means universities are losing an average of £2,500 on every domestic student, according to analysis by the Russell Group of leading research universities.

   More than 50 universities have announced job cuts and closure this year and several are on the verge of bankruptcy, according to Whitehall insiders.

   Stern said three immediate steps were required to stabilise the system. These were a backstop mechanism to avoid university insolvency; clear signals to international students that they were welcome after recent hostility from the government; and a decision to raise student fees and maintenance loans in line with the retail price index.
   She added that the short-term measures would create financial and political space for a wider review of university financing, including changes to the loan repayment system that would take years to implement.

   Bridget Phillipson, shadow education secretary, has signalled that Labour is preparing to address the challenges of the UK’s higher education system.

   “Let me be clear that reform is coming,” she said in a speech to the UUK annual conference in September, adding that “student finance will be the first to see change, although by no means the last”.

   Educational experts said the options for Labour, which has a 20-point lead according to polls, included reversing recent changes to the loan repayments system that landed hardest on women and lower-paid professions, or restoring real interest rates to student loans.

   More radical policies include “stepped repayments”, which would mean higher-earning graduates pay significantly more over their working lifetime than they borrowed in students loans.

   One former university vice-chancellor said the fact that Labour had acknowledged the sector was “in crisis” indicated that Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and Phillipson, who have not ruled out a tuition fee, were likely to act.

   “The short-term pain of putting fees could be blamed on the Tory inheritance . . . and then traded against a transition to a better deal for young people, which Lab can deliver before next general election,” he said.

   Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute think-tank, said he was sceptical of the case for radical reform, noting that the 1997 Dearing review, the 2010 Browne review and the 2017 Augar review had all stuck with a form of student loans.

2. Can see Labour trying to kick the can down the road on this. Any serious increase to tuition fees is going to dominate the news cycle and if you believe Labour’s enormous polling lead is built on shaky foundations (anger at the Tories rather than enthusiasm for Labour) then it’s one of the few issues I could see lingering around into an election in 2028 or 2029.

3. Labour have three choices, none of which are very palatable:

   * Significantly the amount of government money go to universities, which will make it harder for them to meet their other priorities.
   * Increase tuition fees, which will piss off a lot of their younger voters.
   * Continue to allow universities to decline, and possibly oversee some of them actually going bust.

   And whatever they do, they’ll end up getting blamed (despite the last 14 years of Tory choices meaning that we ended up here).

4. Uni is becoming really poor value for money

   Its a great time, three years you will never forget but honestly my course could have been completed in one year if I worked anything like a normal schedule.

5. Presumably if you accept unis have to fund themselves, then tuition fees have to rise with inflation?

   Of course in my opinion HE should be heavily subsidised because it’s handy to have plenty of doctors, engineers, scientists etc in society.

6. Wow the whole system is fucked. Losing 2500 per domestic student, who themselves end up in huge debt. I think we need a look at what education is actually for.