Made In Sheffield - Now Then

Education is not a privilege, it is a right.
It seems like only yesterday that the
government’s proposal for the top-up on tuition
fees as the solution for the Higher Education
Funding “problem” was narrowly passed. Now
there are already whispers of plans to raise and
even completely remove the cap on top-up fees,
granting universities, in particular those of Russell
Group or red-brick repute, the liberty of charging
whatever they want, essentially turning our
education system into a market economy.
An inevitable implication of this will be polarisation in
teaching and learning. Traditional universities and those
high up in the league tables will receive more revenue from
the higher fees they charge, “justified” by their reputation
and academic standing, which will go into superlative
facilities and resources, thus perpetuating a system that
reeks of elitism and socio-economic divide.
The Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) has projected
that if the fee cap was set at a maximum of £7,000, we
might expect an average annual fee of £4,300 across the
sector. If a student were to pay this over the course of a
three-year degree, and also take up the average loan for
living costs (projected at £3,500), then at the end of their
programme they would have acquired a public debt of
around £25,000, once interest has also been added.
For students receiving a loan that would adequately
cover the costs of the maximum fee (£7000) and the
maximum amount for maintenance, this total debt would
rocket to no less than £37,000. Bursary schemes have
been introduced to assist those from poorer backgrounds
to pay for the top-up fees, yet the criteria of discretion for
these awards is riddled with massive assumptions about
an individual’s personal and financial circumstances, with
many cases being no more than what NUS President Wes
Streeting dubbed a “postcode lottery”.
Moreover, financial support for underprivileged students
appears to be subsiding into a “shadow market”, in which
bursaries are awarded according to marketing incentives
or academic merit, as opposed to financial need. Potential
grants from employers are likely to be based on these
criteria, possibly giving graduate employers a larger say
in curriculum – a somewhat disconcerting prospect for
greater society.
The estimated life-time premium (as opposed to that
of someone with just 2 A-levels) for arts and humanities
graduates is £35k and £51k respectively. Within the
OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development), there are just three countries that spend less
per GDP percentage on Higher education, namely Italy,
Slovakia and the Czech Republic. If the UK government
were to match the OECD average expenditure, fees would
be reduced by £1000 per student per year. In October
2007, Gordon Brown declared that “…our ambition must
be nothing less than to be world class in education” – and
where’s all the money for this? Surely not where his mouth is.
With the credit crunch in full-loom, research shows that
today’s undergraduates are grossly underestimating living
costs. The total average shortfall of students’ predicted
outgoings is 10%, with groceries, bills, socialising and travel
being particularly underestimated.
Having sat on University Access to Learning Fund panels
(meetings that award grants to those in financial hardship),
I see how bad things get for underfunded individuals. In
some cases a student’s loan and bursary won’t even cover
their fees and rent, let alone composite living costs and
course materials.
According to a recent NUS survey, 46% of students have
to work to cover their basic living costs, with a third of them
working more than 17 hours a week. Combine this with
the Student Price Index findings that students’ inflation is
essentially 50% higher than the average citizen and it’s not
difficult to see that students from lower socio-economic
backgrounds are already heading for financial crisis.
As a representative of Newcastle University, an institution
within the Russell Group classification (like Sheffield Uni),
the emergence of these elitist proposals concerns me to
the core. In light of our own Chancellor’s public declaration
that the current tuition fee cap is “intolerably low” (though
not necessarily a view representative of the institution as a
whole, it must be noted), I feel that it’s down to those who’ll
be affected to speak out against what may soon become a
miscarriage of representation.
On the 3rd September, NUS launched the ‘Broke &
Broken’ campaign against the Higher Education Funding
proposal and will continue to campaign over the next
couple of years, engaging student unions across the UK. I
implore anyone who believes in the right and equal access
to education to rise up and speak out against what will
surely be a travesty should it come to pass.
Contact your local MP at - writetothem.com
For further information on the debate, visit -
nus.org.uk/en/Campaigns/Broke-and-Broken/
PETE MERCER.
Merit not money.
h.e.i. - higher education ... injustice?
PAGe nine.