University fees set to rise in Britain

LONDON - British and international students are likely to pay higher tuition fees as the new coalition government is set to squeeze spending in the higher education sector and university managements are ready to hike the fees.

The axe is expected to fall first on home and Europian Union students whose current university fees are capped at 3,225 pounds a year. They are given loans at a low interest rate and subsidised by the taxpayer. Students start paying back when they earn at least 15,000 pounds a year - at a lower interest rate than the government’s cost of borrowing.

The university managements are asking for raising the cap on fees, with the Russell group of universities, which includes the top 20 universities in Britain, recommending the raise to be “realistic” - anywhere between 7,000 and 9,000 pounds. They are also asking for higher interest rates and lowering the threshold at which graduates begin paying back loans.

They got a boost with universities minister David Willetts warning Tuesday that the cost of hundreds of thousands of students’ degree courses was a “burden on the taxpayer that had to be tackled”.

The Labour government had earlier this year announced cuts in universities’ budgets, research funds and student support over the coming three years.

The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition has said it would cut 82 million pounds in next year’s university grants and halve the number of additional student places to 10,000.

The government of Prime Minister David Cameron is awaiting a report by an independent panel led by Lord Browne, former BP chief, on student finance. It may be submitted this autumn, but the pressure is mounting.

Many universities are planning to increase the number of places for international students with raised fees as a way out. Overseas students contribute four billion pounds a year in fees, according to the UK Council for International Student Affairs (Ukcisa).

However, the fees are still going up. The Russell Group of universities has decided to raise the international fees by around six percent for 2011-12. In 2008-09 and 2009-2010, the increase was around four percent.

President-elect of the National Union of Students (NUS), Aaron Porter, said Willetts had failed to understand that graduates were leaving with debts of 22,000 pounds on average.

The Socialist Students (SS), on the other hand, is planning a full-fledged national conference on the issue. The SS members will also attend an anti-cuts conference of the NUS in Birmingham June 29.

The fee rise could test the mettle of the coalition to the full.

The two parties contested the election with flatly opposing approaches to student funding. The Tories pledged simply to “consider carefully” the results of the review being led by Lord Browne. This left them free to raise tuition fees and almost certainly interest rates on student loans, if he recommends this.

The Liberal Democrats - who had campaigned in favour of scrapping fees within six years - were given the right to abstain on any vote for an increase. If they abstain, the 305 Conservative MPs have a clear majority, with other parties between them numbering 281.

But the government will still face a difficulty in the House of Lords where, if the Liberal Democrats abstain, the numbers are such that the Tories would need some cross-benchers’ support.

– Indo-Asian News Service