Higher fees less popular than poll tax, UCU warns Mandelson

The union welcomed Lord Mandelson's comments on universities needing to do more to promote access for students from poorer backgrounds, but noted they came less than a week after the government worsened bursary arrangements for the poorest students and refused to fully fund 10,000 extra university places.

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'Lord Mandelson appears to recognise the difficulties current graduates face as they enter a tough job market, but not the impact debt levels are having on their ability to do things like save for a pension or get a foot on the property ladder. We disagree with his view that top-up fees have been a success and polls show that they are opposed by the vast majority of the British public too.

'Education is vital to our future prosperity, not something to be rationed and higher fees would be about as popular as the poll tax with hard working families. In a time of recession the government should be considering how to make access to education cheaper, not giving a green light to universities who wish to charge higher fees.'

If institutions were allowed to charge greater fees, the amount of money poorer students would have to find would be dramatically increased. For example, if fees were increased to £7,000-a-year a university would only be required to fund a bursary of £700. That bursary, coupled with the current state maintenance grant of £2,906, would leave the poorest students needing to find £3,394 a year.