million+ comment on Announcement of Fees Review in England
Following today’s (9 November) Ministerial Announcement of the Terms of Reference and the Panel members of the long-awaited review of tuition fees in England, the university think-tank million+ has said that political parties cannot hide behind the Review and refuse to tell voters what their policies are on tuition fees until after the general election. When the HE Act was agreed by Parliament in 2004, the Government promised that the policy of charging variable tuition fees for full-time students would be reviewed 3 years after their introduction in 2006. The policy led to almost all universities in England charging full-time students the maximum fee allowed (currently £3225 per annum). The policy was backed by the introduction of a graduate repayment scheme where graduates start repaying their loans once they earn £15,000 per annum. The 43% of university students who study part-time were controversially excluded from the legislation, still have to pay fees-upfront and do not have access to any fee loans. As a result part-time enrolments have dropped since 2006.
The Review and the Panel’s membership have been co-commissioned and agreed Lord Peter Mandelson, Secretary of State for BIS (Business, Innovation and Skills) and David Willetts, the Conservatives Universities Spokesperson with the Liberal-Democrats excluded. The review will be chaired by Lord Browne, formerly the Chief Executive of BP until his resignation but it is not scheduled to report until after the general election.
Professor Les Ebdon, Chair of the university think-tank million+ and the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bedfordshire said ‘Political parties cannot hide behind this Fees Review. In particular the Labour and Conservative Parties need to say where they stand before voters go to the polls next year. The parties, the Review Panel and the next Parliament must agree a holistic system which ends the current unfair treatment of part-time students who still have to pay fees upfront.
When the banks continue to be bailed out, students and graduates will want assurances that they will not be asked to pay more simply to make-up for cuts in public funding and that there will be sufficient funded student numbers to ensure that everyone who has the ability, can study at universities which are all well-resourced to undertake teaching and research’.
ENDS
Notes to editors
- million+ is a leading university think-tank, working to solve the complex problems in higher education. www.millionplus.ac.uk
- The terms of reference and the Panel composition can be found here: www.independent.gov.uk/hereview
- For more information please contact Victoria Mills on 0207 7171655 or 07900 277819