Blair attempts to end free education

Blair attempts to end free education

By Marina Cameron

Following the release of the Dearing review report on higher education, on July 24 the Blair Labour government announced a new policy for higher education in Britain.

The policy includes an annual £1000 (A$2280) tuition fee, the end of publicly funded student grants and a loans scheme which will leave the average graduate with a debt of around £10,000.

The previous Tory government judged student fees too unpopular to be introduced before the May general election and set up the review to propose solutions for a sector that it claimed faced a £3 billion funding gap. Since 1976, the number of higher education students has doubled while government outlays per student have declined by 60%.

Dearing visited Australia last year and seems to have been influenced by the system here. Without proposing any measures to charge business for the benefits it receives from higher education, the review recommended an up-front fee for students, an end to publicly funded student grants for those above a certain level of income and a loans system.

Because the £1000 fee can be deferred, the government needed a source of immediate savings and cut all publicly funded student grants.

There has been vocal opposition to the scheme from within the Labour Party, with influential leaders threatening to resign and accusing Labour of selling "the working class down the river".

However, like the ALP during the 1980s, it is clear that the Blair government has accepted the task of cutting public spending and restructuring education to meet business needs while making working people pay more.

From GLW issue 285