Source: westernmorningnews.co.uk
As the battle for election seats heats up, Labour threw their hat into the ring to appeal to the student vote ahead of May. Leader Ed Miliband promised that a Labour victory would see university tuition fees reduced to £6000 from the start of the 2016 academic year, reducing by 33% on the current cap of £9000. University tuition fees are likely to be a key battleground in winning the student vote and Ed Miliband wasted no time in firing the first salvo, attacking Nick Clegg for reneging on his promise ahead of the 2010 election.
Balancing the Books
When asked how a Labour government would fund such a move, Miliband pointed out that removing the tax relief on pensions where the income is over £150,000 per year – a move criticised by Lib-Dem MP and current Business Secretary Vince Cable as a “tax on pensions” that would not go to education, but would be used to “reduce the deficit”. Perhaps pre-empting speculation of a Lab-Lib coalition from May, Mister Miliband said that the move would not be a negotiable part of any agreement in the event of a coalition. Chancellor George Osborne sided with Mister Cable, describing the move attempting to get tuition fees reduced to £6000 as bad for everyone. He also pointed to the current figures suggesting that since the cap was increased, the number of students from disadvantaged backgrounds going to university had actually increased. However, the Institute for Fiscal Studies stated it would be a beneficial move for the country and the economies to have tuition fees reduced to £6000. They explained it would benefit the economy and British universities – something disputed by Universities UK who said it would increase the burden on the taxpayer.
Student Feeling in the Election Year
Source: Wikimedia
The BBC asked students what they thought about the Labour plan to have their tuition fees reduced to £6000. Most responded with scepticism, pointing out that the Lib-Dems had promised to extract several concessions from The Conservative Party, with tuition fees being the most important, and had eventually gone against their pre-election promises leading to a wave of protests early in the coalition. Some said that £6000 or £9000 would not make a difference as they would graduate with a lot of debt and would enter into a graduate jobs market that has still not fully recovered from the 2008 economic crisis. What is clear is that many students do not trust the Lib-Dems or Labour on their tuition fee promises and the various economic groups cannot agree whether or not Labour’s proposal is a sound financial judgement.