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David Ward MPMember of Parliament for Bradford East@DavidWardMP on Twitter and Facebook |
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David Ward MP <>
Tuition Fees
The risk that tuition fees could deter students from more debt-averse, less affluent backgrounds has been of great concern to the Party. That is why we had a costed plan to abolish tuition fees over six years, and why many of us pledged to vote against any rise in tuition fees. We also identified many injustices in the current system which we pledged to reform, such as the lack of support for those studying part time and insufficient help toward meeting students' living costs.
Unfortunately, as Nick Clegg has said, we fond ourselves nearly 300 seats short of a majority, and not able to deliver on all of the commitments in our manifesto. However, the principle that the system of student finance should be fair and progressive, and provide maximum support for students from less well off backgrounds has guided us in all of our negotiations.
The Government's proposals mean that there will be no up-front fees and all students will pay back less per month than they currently pay. The system is also genuinely progressive in that the lowest earning 30 per cent of graduates pay back significantly less than under the currently system and the top earning 30 per cent significantly more.
There will also be substantial additional help for students from disadvantaged backgrounds: over half a million students will be eligible for more non-repayable grants for living costs than they get now and almost one million students will be eligible for more overall maintenance support than they get now. In addition there will be an extra £150 million for a new National Scholarship Program for students from poorer backgrounds and we will introduce tough new sanctions on universities who fail to improve their access to students from such backgrounds.
Finally, the proposals will help up to 200,000 part-time students every year, who will no longer have to pay up-front fees, fulfilling a manifesto pledge.
While the rise in headline fees is very unwelcome I believe it is the system by which they have to be paid which matters most. The alternative would have been big cuts in Higher and Further Education which I would not have been able to accept.
To be absolutely clear, less well-off students will do better under these proposals. However, the risk is that the people we have worked so hard to protect will now be deterred from applying to university by the scaremongering rhetoric of the NUS and the Labour Party.
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