The National Union of Students has seemingly abandoned its Utopian policy of fighting for no tuition fees in order to concentrate on the forthcoming threat of the cap being completely. This could lead to fees going up from £3000 per year to £7000 per year or even higher. Louise McMenemy has eloquently spelt out the British Medical Association’s view on this in the Guardian, concentrating on the negative effect this will have on social mobility. Unusually, it doesn’t touch on the interesting issue of the different funding systems in place within the United Kingdom. For example, students domiciled in Scotland will not pay tuition fees for going to a University in Scotland. Intuitively, this would seem to be a great possibly a great move for widening access. It remains a hypothesis though, as I’m not aware of any good quality research that’s been done into the subject.
- Dom
