26-06-10, 12:09 PM
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Moderator
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Join Date: Jun 2009
Posts: 9,038
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Why I'd bin tuition fees
Yeah, well, it's a pity you didn't think of that when you were still in government, isn't it?
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Quote:
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A chilling phrase has returned to politics this week: There is no alternative. TINA is back with a vengeance to justify every unfairness, in the mouths not just of Conservatives but of Liberal Democrats, betraying proud traditions and election promises.
This week's budget is the most unfair in my political lifetime, and the ease with which Nick Clegg has broken so many pre-election promises shows how much he has been willing to sacrifice his principles for power. We will press Liberal Democrats every step of the way to oppose this budget. And if it passes next week, we will seek to amend it during its passage through the house to tackle its gross inequities.
But it isn't just a budget of unfairness. It is also a budget of stagnation. Nothing demonstrates the failure of the coalition to understand the sources of future jobs and prosperity than its cuts to science, to the nuclear industry and to universities. Our universities are among the finest in the world and essential to Britain's global competitive advantage – vital to a strong, modern economy and a strong society.
The next act of Lib Dem betrayal is likely to hit thousands of students and families who voted for them because of their promise to scrap tuition fees.
I fear the coalition will seek to make large increases to tuition fees, to as much as £10,000 a year, aiming to use these resources not to improve the funding of our universities but to plug the gaps created by its programme of cuts. At the same time, it may well turn its back on the challenge of continuing to increase university participation to the detriment of our workforce and our economy.
The explanation will be TINA. But the task of progressive politics has always been one of political imagination, particularly when fiscal times are tough. The truth about the current system is that despite improvements such as grants to students from low-income families, it doesn't offer a sustainable future for equal opportunity or for universities. It also ties 18-year-olds to the income of their parents, while in all other regards they are adults who are legally independent.
In my view, we must seek to avoid a market in higher education, where some universities charge more than others. This is an important matter of principle. The supremacy of the market has extended too far into areas that should not be defined by commodity and exchange. It is also a practical question. As fees rise further, less well-off as well as part-time students will be even less likely to apply to more expensive universities and so damage their opportunities.
I have therefore come to the conclusion that we need a new settlement to secure our higher education sector without placing an ever higher, ever more unfair and ever more unsustainable burden through tuition fees on students and their families when they can least afford it. Like many others who believe in progressive politics, I have been impressed by the case made by those who argue for a graduate tax to secure university funding. Studies have shown that such a levy, which would abolish fees but ask graduates to pay between 0.25% and 2% of their income over a 20-year period, could raise substantially more for universities than the current system.
Such a tax would allow us to avoid the debilitating cuts the coalition intends – starting with the 10,000 places it has already cut this year. It would prevent the burden being put unfairly on students and their families, and link to their ability to pay. And it could also serve to make our leading universities independent of the vagaries of government spending decisions, similar to the way the TV licence fee gives the BBC a greater degree of autonomy. In coming weeks I therefore intend to consult with those most affected by such a change, with students and their families, with vice-chancellors and the universities themselves, and the public.
Based on their views I will in coming months produce a plan for replacing tuition fees with a new graduate tax to fund our universities, which I hope will be considered by parliament and by the public alongside Lord Browne's proposals for any change in tuition fees later this year.
Difficult cuts are needed in public spending, but those who believe in the future of our economy and the future of our young people have a responsibility to come together and press for a fair and sustainable future for our universities. That is the Labour party I want to lead, offering real alternatives, and bringing together the forces of progressive politics.
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Ed Miliband | Why I'd bin tuition fees | Comment is free | The Guardian
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