Nick Clegg is still trying to claim the tuition fees u-turn is a "progressive" move, even as fees look set to triple next year, writes UCU gen sec Sally Hunt.
Sally Hunt is the general secretary of the University and College Union (UCU)
The word progressive is one that seems to have lost any meaning since the birth of the coalition government. The chancellor is probably most to blame after he had the nerve to call his spending plans progressive, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. However, Nick Clegg and David Cameron have been quite happy to pick up the chancellor’s progressive baton and use the word whenever they feel the need.
The Liberal Democrat leader has been at it in Oldham and Saddleworth this week when trying to defend the coalition’s plans to triple university fees.
His efforts to paint the move as progressive are particularly embarrassing when put against the excellent arguments he made earlier this year about why the current fees are unfair and any move to increase them wrong.
What Mr Clegg, and the many other millionaires in the cabinet, fails to understand is the impact that the larger price tag will have for thousands of hard-working students and families across the country. Parallels can quite easily be drawn here with the laughably out of touch Chris Patten. Patten said he favoured raising fees because parents already paid so much for their children’s education through school fees.
Making choices about the cost of education may never have been an issue for the ex-Westminster schoolboy deputy prime minister or his old Etonian prime minister. However, for the vast majority of families in the country who have never paid school fees, the price of a degree will be a huge deciding factor if their children wish to pursue a university degree. Do we want potential medics opting to study IT because they see it as a cheaper option?
No matter how many times the government tries to paint its plans as progressive, there are no winners under its plans to raise the cap on fees. Allowing fees to rise to £9,000 just paves the way for the government to brutally slash universities’ teaching budgets. The extra fees students pay will simply recoup the money the government is taking away in budget cuts.
Despite the government claiming that only in exceptional circumstances will universities be allowed to charge more than £6,000 a year, we found that universities would have to charge an average fee of close to £7,000 just to maintain current funding levels.
Nick Clegg can bandy the word progressive around all he likes, but the general public are not stupid. This week we have seen a record number of applications to university as people try to get in before his ‘progressive’ system of tripling fees and increasing debt.
23 Responses to “Clegg still trying to redefine ‘progressive’”
William Cullerne Bown
@Stephen W – I’m not sure what your “widely agreed” definition is of progressivity. The IFS actually said students from the poorest 30 per cent of households by parental income would pay *more* than they do under the current system. See the section on progressivity at http://rsrch.co/famgS2
Mark Mills
Ms Hunt seems – without realising it – to be actually agreeing with Clegg about the meaning of progressive. The DPM made the distinction between “old progressives” focussed on income inequality and “new progressives” who worry more about social mobility. For the reasons outlined in the post above Stephen W, the changes will likely reduce income inequality but Ms Hunt’s criticisms are largely focused on the risk that by deterring people from going to University, higher fees will reduce social mobility.
Mr. Sensible
Sally this proposal just typpifies the state the Lib Dems are in.
2 points to make to add to your argument:
1. Sorry to keep returning to this but, as I think Million pointed out, when you say that no one wins, we can add the taxpayer and the public finances in to that as well, for reasons which I won’t bore readers with again.
2. You talk about Universities needing to increase fees to about £7000 to cover costs. Not only do the government’s ‘access’ proposals lack detail, but as I understand it the cuts to teaching grants are coming in to effect a year before any increase in fees can take effect.
Is that correct, and if so, how do you think institutions will deal with that?
William Cullerne Bown
@Mark Mills There’s nothing in @Stephen W’s comment to justify the huge claim – not ever made as far as I can recall by Cable or Willetts – that the reforms will increase social mobility. With regards to old and new progressives – who cares? To take this kind of language seriously is to elevate the attitudes of fashion above serious critical thought.
Look Left – Former Labour MP sent down for expenses fraud | Left Foot Forward
[…] Writing on Left Foot Forward, general secretary of the University and College Union Sally Hunt said: “His efforts to paint the move as progressive are particularly embarrassing when put against […]