[xtypo_dropcap]B[/xtypo_dropcap]usiness Minister Vince Cable faces a possible rebellion of Lib Dem backbenchers over their pre-election promise not to raise university tuition fees.
On Tuesday the Business minister backed the recommendations of a review, which says the current cap on university fees should be lifted to allow universities to set their own fees.
The review was set up by the previous Labor government to explore alternatives methods of funding further education, and was conducted by Lord Browne, former head of BP.
Lord Browne’s report, published on Tuesday, recommends completely freeing up tuition fees with no payments while learning and grants of up to 3,250 pounds (US$5,133.78) a year to students from families earning less than 60,000 pounds (US$94,774.76) a year.
Lord Browne’s intent is that students become the central movers of finance through the education system with higher education institutions (HEIs) vying for student numbers by setting high standards and attractive courses.
Should Lord Browne’s advice make it to the statute book, fees for university places would not be limited at the present 3,290 pounds. for fees beyond 6,000 pounds the university must pay a sum to support poorer students. Lord Browne calls this a “soft cap.”
Getting the recommendations through Parliament may prove tricky for the coalition government, with Lib Dems having to break a manifesto promise not to raise tuition fees, and Conservatives baulking at what may be perceived as an attack on rich families and students who earn high salaries after graduating.
At the Conservative Party conference the universities minister David Willetts was reported by the Guardian to have said to a fringe meeting, “We’re not bound by what John Browne says, we have to assess his proposals against the different benchmarks that we set out in the coalition agreement.
“There are a series of different objectives that we have for a graduate contribution scheme, and there are some tricky trade-offs between them.”
Greg Mulholland, the Liberal Democrat MP for Leeds North West, one of the the most outspoken of the dissenters, told the BBC: “Without Lib Dem support and with Lib Dem ministers abstaining, it will be very difficult to get this through … Lib Dem MPs could derail any attempts to see fees rising substantially, and I will certainly be doing everything I can to make that happen.”
He added, “I do not think this is a threat at all because it [the agreement] clearly states that Lib Dems will be allowed to abstain.”
Martin Shapland, chairman of Liberal Youth, said, according to the politics.co.uk website, “You simply cannot build our future on debt. This move has the potential to cripple students with unprecedented levels of debt, which will act as a real deterrent to those from poorer backgrounds seeking a better life through the education system.
“Higher fees will not be acceptable to grass-roots Lib Dems and, I imagine, most of the parliamentary party.”
The opposition Labor Party also appears to be split over the issue of how to fund higher education. The Labor leader, Ed Miliband, on the BBC’s “Politics Show” on Oct. 10 supported a Graduate Tax while his shadow chancellor, Alan Johnson, was quoted as saying, “Oh and for goodness sake, don’t pursue the Graduate Tax.”
The UCU lecturers’ union said, according to the BBC, that the plan, which could see fees rising to as much as £12,000 per year, was “the final nail in the coffin for affordable higher education.”
Commentators believe some HEIs will close.
A total of 463,000 students took up university places this year, estimated at 45 percent of people at that age.
