Widespread peaceful protests against "fees and cuts" at UK universities

by Ben Sowter

I have just returned from the interesting experience of participating in my first live radio broadcast and also, coincidentally my first student protest. The radio debate was on the Victoria Derbyshire show on BBC Radio 5 Live and should shortly be available here. Also speaking were Conservative MP Stewart Jackson and LibDem MP Lorely Burt.

Introduced as pro-tuition fees I was greeted by the co-founder of the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts, Michael Chessum, with a deadpan "welcome to the sit-in". One of his arguments as posited in the Guardian on Monday was repeated this morning, "Students of this generation are being told they must pay for their own education as funding is cut by a cabinet of millionaires, all of whom went to university for free." This seems a slightly self-defeating argument, as retrospectively these individuals would have found no difficulty in paying had they indeed been asked to pay for their education.

Naturally I would prefer those of my children that choose university to emerge debt free. However, the debate on student fees cannot be taken in isolation - the policies of successive governments have driven university participation with little thought as to from where traditional subsidies would feed the increased demand.

In this context, regardless of funding cuts, the application of increased fees has become an inevitability. In 2010 over 30% of university applicants were unsuccessful (UCAS - 16 November 2010) and graduate unemployment rose to a 17 year high of 8.9% (HECSU - November 2010). These are indicators of a potentially unhealthy demand for an experience that doesn't yield the automatic boost to career prospects that it once did - applicants may now be forced to make an informed choice rather than blindly following the norm.

Under current arrangements only 17% of students at Russell Group universities come from state schools (FT - 16 November 2010). Widening participation is already a crisis at leading universities and one that finds its roots, I suspect, in schools rather than at universities - it is an unlikely coincidence that Education Secretary Michael Gove was interviewed in the morning of the same day on the same station and raised similar points - centring his interview on placing teachers at the heart of new proposals. Far from making this situation worse, higher fee levels may catalyze the creation of effective programmes to educate young people from poorer backgrounds on the benefits and risks of university as well as facilitating access.

With the current direction of things I feel it is just simple economics that is likely to drive tuition fees upwards, how closely they are tied into cuts elsewhere may dictate how quickly this happens. Certainly on the international stage, deprioritising higher education funding in a program of cuts doesn't necessarily seem a wise move - with examples such as Singapore a shining example of placing education at the heart of things. After all, foreign students contribute £8.5bn to the UK economy (UKCISA - 2010) so taking the shine of brand UK could prove a costly decision.

It was argued today also that increased fees will drive consumer-led demand for quality standards - it will also see our students seriously consider international options in numbers previously inconceivable.