VCs uneasy about proposed fees regime
Several university Vice Chancellors have raised concerns over the proposed changes to tuition fees that Labour have made part of their election campaign.
Announcements from the Labour Party have indicated that they would be included to cut the rate of tuition to something around £6000, instead of £9000 where it currently stands. However, there are concerns among university management about how beneficial this will be, with some suggesting the costs that the government would have to subsidise universities, if this went ahead, could be potentially spent better elsewhere.
Vice Chancellor at the University of Exeter, Sir Steve Smith, was concerned that he plans were only election pledges rather than seriously thought out policy. Smith said 'We do need clarity on this. The nightmare scenario is that a party fighting a very tight election makes promises to win seats, for short-term political gain, but then cannot deliver the economic resource needed to make up the difference.'
Smith argued 'If you are going to spend the £2 billion cost of implementing this policy, would you not be better off spending it not subsidising the middle class?'
The International Relations academic was still worried about the long term prospect of £9000 tuition fees. He said 'Put simply, the £9,000 fee has to rise at some point. I am worried about whether there is the political will to do that.'
The aptly named Sir Nigel Thrift, Vice Chancellor at the University of Warwick, also raised an issue with The Times. He told the newspaper, 'If any government chooses to reduce fees I am sure that they would want to provide universities with replacement funding so that universities can continue to deliver the high quality university experience that students rightly expect.'
Head of representative body Universities UK and Vice Chancellor at the University of Surrey, Sir Christopher Snowden, was clear that if changes were to be made to the amount that students pay, the government will need to step in. Snowden said '[We have] been clear that any changes to the student funding system in England must ensure three things — value for money for students, stability in funding for universities and be financially sustainable for government.'
Snowden added 'Our university sector is world leading and, to continue in this vein, needs stable, long-term funding. Neither universities nor students benefit from the student funding system being subject to radical reform every few years.'
by James Howell
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