Letter HE - Tuition fees

12.00.00am GMT Thu 29th Jan 2004

Dear Sir,

Anthony Steen may think Tuesday's vote on the higher education bill 'gloriously irrelevant' (Herald Express 28th. January), but to thousands of people in his constituency it is anything but.

As a result of the vote students will have to pay up to £3000 per year in tuition fees. Add to this living costs and the likely result is a debt on graduation of up to £30,000 or even £64,000 for medics, despite all the so-called concessions, grants and jiggery pokery put forward by the Government in recent weeks. It is not as if these measures will even solve the problem. After taking into account all the bursaries and extra concessions promised it is estimated that the universities will see not much more than £1billion of the top up fee revenue of £2billion. The real result will be that home background and available finance will determine whether you go to university or which university you choose, and not talent.

To implement their proposals the Labour party have broken a manifesto pledge not to introduce top up fees and even to legislate against their future introduction. The Conservative Party have, by Mr. Steen's own admission, no idea of how they would solve the university funding problem. Liberal Democrats on the other hand have a viable, sensible and costed alternative that would ensure there were no tuition fees. Universities would receive extra funding immediately and the cost would be born by a modest tax increase on those earning over £100,000 per year, the vast majority of whom have benefited from a university education.

Yours sincerely,

Mike Treleaven