PC 10: Tuition Fees

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Andy Edwards
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Re: PC 10: Tuition Fees

Post by Andy Edwards »

Scrapping tuition fees isn't the way when it means that it's replaced by a new Tory tax on working classes- a tax that has no end, no upper limit, no boundaries of any kind.

It's important that we have a strong higher education system in this country, and it's important that our higher education system is funded to meet the demand of those that are using it. That's why fees were floated as an option in a independent review that was initiated by the Conservatives, and why it's been enacted to make sure there are resources for these institutions.

At the same time, what is needed is more investment in education than just scrapping tuition fees. Having an education that can act as a true vehicle of social mobility is far more valuable in the short, medium, and long terms than the Tory's boundless and formless stealth tax. That's why I've supported efforts by this Government to put more effort into schools at the non-university level. Tuition fees or not, there are swaths of people throughout this country that won't go to university; maybe it's not for them. Maybe they have pressures at home that would prevent it, like I did. Or maybe they can't get in because they aren't part of the right social class. These are issues that the Tory's new tax won't solve, but that Labour has been actively working on.

Meanwhile, Mr. Croft is trying to wow the public and pull the eye away from rather shameful statements and positions taken by his party by saying no more fees, but a tax instead. They say the devil is in the details... and I gather the Tory's new tax on graduating is going to be quite a large devil indeed.
Andrew Edwards MP
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Secretary of State for the Home Office (2001-)
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Will Frost
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Re: PC 10: Tuition Fees

Post by Will Frost »

The Labour Party can’t have it both ways; either our policy is frivolous and unaffordable, or it’s an unfair tax on students. Fortunately for us, and for the British people, neither of these things are true.

There's the version of our policy that exists only in the fantasy land Labour Ministers live in, and then there's our actual policy. The Conservative Party is proposing to radically overhaul the higher education system, removing all initial barriers to a university education to ensure that cost is not a preventative factor for any student. As I said in my speech to the Tory Reform Group, the graduate tax is a progressive policy that will cost no more than the existing tuition fee, will be means tested, won't apply to low-income people, and students won't pay anything unless they've graduated and found employment. And unlike the Chancellor, I don't think so little of students to assume that they would drop out early as a means to avoid paying the tax. I have faith in our young people - I'd recommend he try it some time.

The Home Secretary, in a recent comment to the press, said that many students struggle to get into university because they're not from the right social class. He's correct, and I was one of those young people. That's why I've introduced this policy, to make it easier for the next set of hard working young people to get a better shot at life. Our plan throws open the door of opportunity in a way that hasn't been done in modern politics, by making university accessible to everyone. I encourage him to join us.
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Sir Jack Anderson
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Re: PC 10: Tuition Fees

Post by Sir Jack Anderson »

I’m not interested in spin. If I were, I’d abolish tuition fees tomorrow. It makes for a nice, feel good headline. I’m rather aware of that.

But I’m interested in results. There is no evidence that tuition fees has deterred young people from going to University. In fact, participation has increased, especially among the disadvantaged.

The evidence is clear that it’s Widening Participation and grants which see real investment in our most disadvantaged, and therefore see increased uptake in Universities from working class, aspirational kids. If William Croft cared about opening opportunity up to everyone, he would focus on those areas of funding. They are where my priorities are, not on getting good headlines and bad results – although poor Mr. Croft’s leadership has so far been plagued by bad headlines and bad results, which is why the Tories are polling worse than even 1997, which has likely prompted him into this silly stunt.
Sir Jack Anderson
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Chair of the Treasury Select Committee. (2000-2001)
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Re: PC 10: Tuition Fees

Post by Will Frost »

The best way to give every young person the opportunity to attend university is to eliminate the financial barriers they face from the outset - and that is precisely what the Conservative's policy on abolishing tuition fees will achieve. What the Chancellor is saying is nonsense, and everyone across this country knows it. The National Union of Students disagrees with him, economists disagree with him, academics disagree with him, and most importantly, students and their families disagree with him! Tuition fees present daunting financial barriers to students, and saddles them with debt obligations and loan repayments that follow them for years after they have graduated. It is unfair, it is harmful to our country, and it needs to come to an end.

Our proposal flips the status quo on its head, throwing out tuition fees once and for all and ensuring every student who wants to pursue a university degree can do so. Students only pay the graduate tax if they've graduated, and once they've found a job that allows them to afford to do so. It ensures responsible financial maintenance of our universities, while guaranteeing that cost no longer stands as a prohibitive factor in deciding whether or not to attend university.

I never expected Labour to support our policy, after all they spent their 1997 campaign lying to students about their promise to keep university free only turn to turn around and break that promise by imposing tuition fees. Labour Ministers are not my target demographic, and to be frank I couldn't care less about what they think of our policy. What I do care about is making sure that no parent will ever again have to worry if they can afford to send their child to school. I will continue to aggressively pursue this policy because it's the right thing for Britain, and to make the case that our country needs a Conservative Government that cares about expanding educational opportunity.
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Re: PC 10: Tuition Fees

Post by Sir Jack Anderson »

I can respect if someone disagrees with tuition fees and wishes to eliminate them, but under our current system there are no ‘upfront costs’ and parents do not need to ‘have to worry if they can afford to send their child to school’ as a result of tuition fees. As much as the Leader of the Opposition wishes otherwise, we are not the United States of America and he is showing how either out of touch he is with the tuition fee system or how underbriefed he is.

But this scaremongering has deep consequences for working class children or parents who may hear such rhetoric and – as a result of him – be scared into thinking University is not for them.

William Croft’s uninformed and untrue statements are dangerous, and I strongly urge him, for the sake of social mobility, to retract them.
Sir Jack Anderson
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Re: PC 10: Tuition Fees

Post by Will Frost »

So now the Opposition is being accused of scaremongering... all because we want to abolish tuition fees and make it easier for people to attend university.

There's this consistent trend within New Labour to not disagree with the merits of our proposals, but to always question our intentions and out motives. It is the sort of argument that benefits no one, and fails to seriously advance discussion in our democratic society. Labour has made university more expensive as a result of their decision to introduce tuition fees, that's a fact. Despite that, I for one believe that the Labour Party is well intentioned even if they don't hold me in the same regard. It should be possible to disagree with one another without making baseless accusations as to the other party's intentions.

For the good of the country, the Chancellor should take a deep breath and stop with the hysterics.
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Re: PC 10: Tuition Fees

Post by Clarice Ashbridge »

It was my pleasure to introduce William Croft today to the Tory Reform Group. New Labour has shown, from rising truancy rates and, to the imposition of unfair aspiration-stifling tuition fees and the economic measures taken against married couples that they are dead set on waging a war against families the length and breadth of the nation. There is a right way forward: moderate, compassionate and common-sense based Conservative government.

Tuition fees were one of the many great betrayals undertaken by New Labour during their last term, introduced only months after the election against the express wishes of the British people. As with other aspects of their education policy, they are taking policies that are damaging to our young people and forcing them down the throats of the nation with the smugness that has become a hallmark of this government. Our announcement that we will back Britain's students by scrapping tuition fees has sent them spinning into oblivion, especially the Chancellor, who should probably watch his blood pressure with how red in the face it has made him. But let's cut through Jack Anderson's desperate spin and faux outrage, and get to what really matters. It was a Conservative government who abolished tuition fees, it was a Labour government who brought them back in: and it will be a Conservative government that abolishes them again.
The Hon. Clarice Ashbridge MP, Lady Ashbridge
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Re: PC 10: Tuition Fees

Post by Rebecca Flair »

The more that Mr Croft is confronted with the realities of his incompetence the more he flails around incompetently, it is a vicious and self-fulfilling prophecy really. What the Tory policy for students boils down to is tuition fees on steroids. Where the current system places a cap on the amount a student will have to pay back, the Tories lift that cap. Where the current system sets the interest rate up front, the Tories give the Chancellor the power to alter it each year according to his needs not our students. Where the current system provides certainty, albeit certainty that is bad for students, the Tories provide uncertainty which will always be worse. The Conservative plan is a disastrous attempt to buy students' votes by promising them the Earth and then socking them with a stealth tax as soon as the votes are counted. Students deserve better than petty politicking from a leader so desperate to try and lead that he just looks desperate.
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Re: PC 10: Tuition Fees

Post by Rebecca Flair »

Let's examine the Conservative Plan in detail. What is their plan for students who drop out of university early? Their class mates who finish their degree will pick up the tab. What is their plan for students who graduate and leave the country? Their class mates who stay in the UK will pick up the tab. What is their plan for students on lower incomes? They will pick up the tab, for the rest of their lives. The Conservative Party are attempting to trick an entire generation of students by presenting a plan that looks credible and progressive but is, like them themselves, full of contradictions, flaws, and regressive to the bone. Only the Liberal Democrats have a plan that will work for all students in the United Kingdom, that much is perfectly clear after Cowboy Croft's self-induced hysteria.
Rebecca Flair
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Re: PC 10: Tuition Fees

Post by Alex Cardigan »

The Conservatives criticise Labour stealth taxes, but their proposals here do just that, and penalise our learners. Liberal Democrats are taking the principled and progressive policy on this, which says we should do away with these charges altogether. People should not have to pay a penny to get educated and move up the ladder, and create a better life for themselves, not on day one, nor ten years after graduation. Indeed, his proposals are vague, but I think some might end up paying even more under the Tory model. I believe our young people should be encouraged to aspire, succeed, and, I'll say it, make good money without high taxes. The Conservatives and Labour alike believe we should penalise people for that aspiration.
The Rt Hon. Alexander Simon "Alex" Cardigan MP
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