My Stance on the Tuition Fees Debate (London Liberal Democrats)

London Liberal Democrats <info@libdems4london.org.uk>

My Stance on the Tuition Fees Debate

December 9, 2010 1:38 PM
Originally published by Paul Burstow MP

I understand the anxiety of many people about changes to the way in which university courses are paid for. But let's look at the details. The Government is not implementing the Browne Review recommendations. It has developed its own set of proposals that in effect transform the post course tuition fee into a graduate contribution. And let's be clear about exactly what these proposals are. Under the proposed system, one in four graduates will pay less than they do now, while those who earn the most will pay more. In future no one will have to pay up-front fees, and for the first time ever this will also include part time students. Part time students studying at an intensity of quarter or more of a full time course will now no longer pay up front fees and instead will pay a graduate contribution like graduates of full time degrees. This change will benefit around 175,000 part-time students in total, meaning the vast majority of part time students will no longer pay upfront fees.

To ensure that protection afforded to low income graduates the proposals will raise the threshold when people start paying their graduate contribution to £21,000, and unlike Labour's £15,000 threshold, we will annually uprate the threshold to keep pace with growth in earnings. As a result graduates will pay less per month than they do now. This will benefit an estimated 100,000 low paid graduates by 2021.

We want to be fair to people already in the student loan system, failed by Labour who never increased the £15k threshold over which tuition fees are repaid. We will increase this every year in line with inflation, lifting an estimated 120,000 people out of repayment by 2015 who would have been making payments under Labour's policy.

Finally, every single graduate will pay less per month than under Labour's tuition fee system, and the one in four graduates will pay less in total than under the current system.

I did not stand as a single issue candidate and as such I will not vote on this issue in isolation. I have taken into consideration the overall state of the public finances; the cost of maintaining the status quo; the merits or otherwise of any alternative HE reforms; and the merits of the HE reforms proposed by Vince Cable. Having weighed all these considerations I have decided to vote for the reforms. They are very much better than anything Labour or the Conservative Party would have delivered on their own in Government