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Debating the Cost Student view by Andrew Hamilton
On 15 October, student representatives and politicians debated the rise in tuition fees proposed by The Browne Report at the Hugh Pollard Lecture Theatre in Lancaster. Live footage of the debate was broadcast to the Learning Gateway lecture theatre in Carlisle as well.
The proposals, which could see cuts in higher education plus tuition fees raised to anything from £6000 to £10,000, have caused concern amongst students and staff throughout the university, as well as the rest of the country.
The panel included the Representation Sabbatical of the UCSU Martin Dodd, The Vice Chancellor of the University of Cumbria Professor Graham Upton, Eric Ollerenshaw the Conservative MP for Lancaster and Fleetwood, Stuart Langhorn the Liberal Democrat Leader of Lancaster City Council, NUS Vice President Ben Whittaker and the UCU Northern Region Secretary Veronica Killen.
Martin Dodd kicked off the debate. “Our members believe in a fair and progressive system which recognizes— considering the majority of our students enter low paid, largely public sector work —that those who earn more should pay
more...Sadly it looks like there’s going to be a system which poses unbearable debt, where many future students will lose out on the opportunity that higher education provided for many here today.”
Graham Upton said “On a personal level I’d like to say, I was shocked, by the shift in the proposals towards a privately funded higher educational system, with massively reduced government funding... I believe in due course these fees will be the highest of any public university system in the world, and I’m personally shocked and disappointed by that”. He then added “But moving from a personal level to that of a Vice Chancellor…I don’t think any
university will be able to charge less than the £6000, most are likely to charge the £7000 or above.”
Asked if students can expect double or triple resources, time and worth of degree and whether that was fair or not, Graham Upton responded that “No you can’t—what you’re replacing is just money we’re losing from government; we’re going to be no better off. If we went for £7000 we’re going to be no better off now, because the government is pulling its share out of the equation.”
Eric Ollerenshaw, newly elected Conservative Member of Parliament for Lancaster & Fleetwood, was present to defend the Government’s position. “I’ve got to give you the hard economic facts; Government will be cutting the spend on higher education—higher education and the individuals involved with it will have to pick up some extra of that bill.”
Liberal Democrat councillor and teacher Stuart Langhorn, took a more anti coalition line on the raising of tuition fees, criticizing the Liberal Democrat Government Minister’s U-turn on the policy, after signing the pledge not to raise them during the election. Sporting a pair of sunglasses throughout the debate, he joked “I must apologise—I have a migraine, I’ve had a migraine since the Browne Review was announced, that’s why I’m wearing dark glasses.”
He continued “There are students who are seriously considering not going to university because of the debt that they
will have, and that’s under the current system…I do agree with Eric that you do need to reduce the deficit, it’s the way you do it and how you do it and who you affect and I do not believe some of the things in the report are right.”
Veronica Killen said: “The UCU was always opposed to top-up fees: we knew that this was the beginning of privatisation of higher education and we knew that once top-up fees were introduced they would only rise and rise. This rise is not economic as Eric would say, but it is ideological.”
Ben Whittaker of the NUS called the findings of The Browne Report “horrendous” and said it was “shameful by all government parties, who did a stitch up around the review so that it reported after the general election. It was a shame there was not a student on the panel, since we are being expected to pay the most out of this.”
Asked how the debate went, Martin Dodd said “It was a massive success and was really good to see the Students’ Union incorporate the theme of guest speakers and mass events which benefit staff, students and the local community!”.
Andrew Hamilton studies English with Creative Writing at the Lancaster campus
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