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Letters

Star letter

Tuition fees - the future

Why is it so important to oppose the coalition Government's decision to raise university tuition fees?

Let's roll the film of history forward 20 years. If their policy is introduced, what will higher education look like? Tuition fees are now raised to £15,000 a year. That means that, with repayments of loans, students are leaving university with debts of £100,000.

In a bid to attract students, some universities are offering lower tuition fees and either four-year part-time or two-year full-time degrees. However, the quality of the courses is questionable, teaching staff are badly paid and facilities are poor. They are regarded as second-rate degrees.

There are some bursaries and scholarships for science, technology, engineering and maths courses, but most of them are provided by large corporations. Arts courses have become the preserve of the wealthy.

Oxford, Cambridge and ten other leading universities have left the state sector and are private institutions. Their fees are anything up to £40,000 a year.

Implausible? Exaggerated? What I have just been describing is the American higher education system in 2010.

France charges negligible rates for tuition fees - a few hundred euros. Why would their Government never be able to get away with extortionate charges for higher education? Because there would be a revolution.

Richard Knights, Liverpool

http://abolishpublicschools.blogspot.com

Democracy isn't dead

I live and work in a rural county, where the council recently announced extraordinary cuts. I marched with colleagues on a joint union demonstration, on a Saturday. I took heart from the march and took a signature sheet to collect 20 signatures from colleagues who were not able to join me.

Inviting them to sign, I heard numerous reservations, from: "I'm not a union member, so can't sig" to "What's the point?" to "Will it make a difference?".

My replies: "You don't have to be a member of a union to voice your objections"; "Somebody has to object - if not you, then who?"; "Yes, we think we'll get a thousand signatures. It's your democratic opportunity to object." I gained 62 signatures.

Democracy is not dead. We can still object or support where we see fit. We need to use the democratic process in any way we can. Don't give up!

Julie Hawkins, Somerset

Save our libraries

Library users and staff across the country are increasingly concerned at the implications of the Comprehensive Spending Review. Over 250 closures have been announced. Some, for example in Oxfordshire and Lewisham, are in areas involved in the Future Libraries Programme pilot, which promised: "A strong library service, based around the needs of local people, can play a key role in our ambitions to build the Big Society by providing safe and inclusive spaces for people to read, learn and access a range of community services."

When then-Secretary of State Andy Burnham hesitated over halting Wirral's attempt to close half its libraries just over a year ago, his then-shadow Ed Vaizey said: "If Andy Burnham is not prepared to intervene when library provision is slashed in a local authority such as the Wirral, it is clear he is ignoring his responsibilities as Secretary of State." Andy Burnham did, of course, change his mind.

Now cuts approaching the scale of those in the Wirral are being repeated across the country, not only in Oxfordshire and Lewisham, but in Buckinghamshire, Nottinghamshire, Leeds, Brent, Gloucestershire and many, many more. Ed Vaizey, now Culture Minister, has written to councils reminding them of their duty under the 1964 Libraries and Museums Act to provide a "comprehensive and efficient" service.

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The editor welcomes your letters but reserves the right to edit them. Write to: Your letters, The Teacher, NUT, Hamilton House, Mabledon Place, London WC1H 9BD or email teacher@nut.org.uk. Letters for the March/April issue should reach us no later than Monday 24 January.

Please note we cannot print letters sent in without name and postal address (or NUT membership number), although we can withhold details from publication if you wish.

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