Raising tuition fees could lead to 'educational segregation', warns UCU

Responding to comments made by the higher education minister David Willetts, in today's Guardian newspaper, the union said that increasing the financial barriers for students and their families could pave the way for 'educational segregation' and would fly in the face of public opinion.
 
In an interview with The Guardian David Willetts accused students of being a 'tax burden' and gave his broadest hint yet that fees could rise. UCU today warned the Liberal Democrats that they would be decimated as a parliamentary force in urban areas, such as Leeds, Bristol, Manchester, Liverpool, Oxford and Cambridge, if they supported any such policy, with many of their MPs relying on the student vote to be in power.
 
Those at risk of losing their seat include newly elected MP Simon Wright in Norwich South. Any move to raise tuition fees would also be deeply unpopular with the general public with 62% of voters saying they oppose lifting the cap in last week's Ipsos Mori poll for The Economist.
 
UCU, who gave oral evidence to the Independent Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance last month, says its plans for a Business Education Tax (BET) are the first coherent attempt at making business rather than students pay for the numerous benefits it gets from UK higher education and would allow the UK to abolish tuition fees altogether.*
 
UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: "Lifting the cap on tuition fees will price the majority out of university and send a message to young people and their parents that 'higher education is something only the rich should aspire to, not people like you'. It will also be seen as an act of ultimate betrayal by the Liberal Democrats, who have many MPs who rely on the student vote.
 
"It is high time that business paid its fair share for the numerous benefits it receives from universities and graduates. This was clearly laid out in the landmark Dearing Report and politicians could do a lot worse than to go back and read it.
 
"Increasing the financial barriers for students and their families will deny thousands the chance of fulfilling their potential at university and pave the way for educational segregation, with higher education becoming the preserve of the wealthy."
 
Notes

a copy of UCU's Business Education Tax (PDF file) can be found at www.ucu.org.uk/media/pdf/2/3/inplaceoffees-betax_ucucompass_mar10.pdf