A blog about politics, education, Ireland, culture and travel. I am Conor Ryan, Dublin-born former adviser to Tony Blair and David Blunkett on education. Views expressed on this blog are written in a personal capacity.
Thursday, 12 June 2008
The case for a cross-party review of university fees
My column in the Independent today makes the case for a cross-party review of university tuition fees. You can read it here.
You say that VCs believe higher fees are "vital". If they mean the current system has failed to fund uni's adequately then I agree. However clearly yet higher fees is not the answer. It will be a disaster for the economy for over 40% of the workforce (ie graduates) to start their working life with £20k + of debt. You note that graduate number haven't dipped. Surveys have shown young people are blase about debt, I am not reassured by this. You cite maintenance of graduate numbers as a flawed prediction but don't mention the dubious claims made by the goverment to try and justify top-up fees, namely that graduates would earn a lifetime premium of £400k and that, according to Bill Rammell, standard tax would need to rise "3p or 4p" in the absence of top-up fees. Given that neither is true top-up fees should be scrapped. A tax increase of just £1 /week for each of the UK's 30 million taxpayers would meet the £1.4 billion top-up fees are supposed to raise. The war on students/graduates has gone on long enough.
Spot on, Conor
ReplyDeleteYou say that VCs believe higher fees are "vital".
ReplyDeleteIf they mean the current system has failed to fund uni's adequately then I agree.
However clearly yet higher fees is not the answer.
It will be a disaster for the economy for over 40% of the workforce (ie graduates) to start their working life with £20k + of debt.
You note that graduate number haven't dipped. Surveys have shown young people are blase about debt, I am not reassured by this.
You cite maintenance of graduate numbers as a flawed prediction but don't mention the dubious claims made by the goverment to try and justify top-up fees, namely that graduates would earn a lifetime premium of £400k and that, according to Bill Rammell, standard tax would need to rise "3p or 4p" in the absence of top-up fees.
Given that neither is true top-up fees should be scrapped. A tax increase of just £1 /week for each of the UK's 30 million taxpayers would meet the £1.4 billion top-up fees are supposed to raise.
The war on students/graduates has gone on long enough.