Cardiff Students for a vote against fees & cuts

Two independent studies, one by the Higher Education Policy Institute and one by Million Plus, have concluded that the proposal is not likely to save the taxpayer any significant amount of money and might even cost more than the current funding system. Indeed, the Government’s own Office for Budget Responsibility’s recently predicted that the Government’s plans to increase fees would add up to £13 billion to public sector net debt by 2015-16, even after the related education funding cuts have been taken into account.

Higher education is a public good. It increases democratic political engagement, enriches collective culture, and makes more effective the workings of all the public and private endeavours that employ graduates. It should not be treated, as the Government proposal treats it, as something that benefits only students themselves. And it should not be altered in any way likely to reduce the number entering higher education and the diversity of their social backgrounds. It should therefore be funded primarily by the state, not the students.