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Rt. Hon. Sir Alan Beith MPLiberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Berwick Upon TweedWorking for you and the Berwick upon Tweed Constituency all year roundin Northumberland and in Westminster |
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Beith: Students face a lifetime of debt under the Conservatives
October 21, 2009 10:30 AM
Student top up fees leave a lifetime of debt, warns Sir Alan Beith MP.
There is now less than eight months to save a new generation of young people from huge increases in university tuition fees, according to Liberal Democrat MP for Berwick Sir Alan Beith..
Sir Alan was speaking out after the Conservatives suggested they will increase tuition fees to £7,000 if they take power at the next general election, which has to be held by next June. This rise would see tuition fees for undergraduates more than double. Currently there is a cap of £3,300 per year in England and Wales. Students north of the border do not have to pay fees up front, following rules brought in by the Liberal Democrats in coalition with Labour in the Scottish Parliament in 2001.
Labour's Peter Mandelson has already suggested that his party will also allow universities to charge more than at present, if re-elected.
Sir Alan said:
"Students now face the prospect of serious levels of debt when they graduate from university, which could be with them for life, and the Conservatives want to put them under even more pressure.
"Labour and now the Tories just want to get as much money as they can from students who are already having to work harder than ever to stay at university.
"The choice is clear: only the Liberal Democrats will end the unfair system of top up fees for university students and bring back free education."
The National Union of Students estimates that the average cost of attending university now stands at more than £42,000. The average graduate will have accrued nearly £20,000 of debt by the end of a three-year course.
For more details on the Tories' university policy see Daily Express, 15 October: "Student debt to soar as tuition fees could rise to £7,000 a year" tp://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/134074/Student-debt-to-soar- For more details on Labour's university policy see Daily Mail, 28 July: "Liberal Democrats are the only party which believes university education should be free and everyone who has the ability should be able to go to university and not be put off by the cost." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1202408/Middle-class-face-7-000-tuition-fees-pay-poor-Mandy-warns-excellence-cheap.html
At the Liberal Democrats' autumn conference in September 2009, the party voted to retain its pledge to abolish tuition fees. The vote was section (1d) of the motion Thriving in a Globalised World - A Strategy for Britain (Domestic Responses to Globalisation Policy Paper) The full text can be viewed here: http://bit.ly/13hEdO
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