PM may cut study fees to lure voters

BAIT: STUDENTS COULD BE CHARGED VARIABLE RATES

Young people voted heavily against Tories, who had tripled the cost of tuition.

Britain could reduce the burden of university fees on students and bring back grants for their living expenses, Prime Minister Theresa May said yesterday, under pressure to lure younger voters a year after they cost her parliamentary majority.

Her predecessor and fellow Conservative, David Cameron, tripled the cost of tuition for students from England and Wales to £9 000 (R146 920) a year, many times higher than the fees other European Union countries charge. In 2016, the government also phased out all grants to help poorer students with living costs, replacing them with loans.

The opposition Labour Party says it wants to eliminate student fees and restore grants.

May’s Conservatives, or Tories, have long defended their approach, arguing that requiring students to pay helps fund more places so more people can study, and puts more of the burden of the cost of higher education on those who benefit most from it.

Students do not have to make payments on their loans unless they earn above a minimum threshold, although they continue to accrue interest. Unpaid balances are wiped out after 30 years.

But the system is extremely unpopular with younger voters, angry about being the first British generation to start their careers carrying tens of thousands of pounds of debt. Young people voted heavily against the Conservatives in an election last year that surprisingly erased May’s majority, forcing her to form a minority government.

May acknowledged that Britain now has “one of the most expensive systems of university tuition in the world”, and pledged to make it fairer, according to excerpts from her speech released in advance by her office.

“All but a handful of universities charge the maximum possible fees for undergraduate courses. Three-year courses remain the norm. And the level of fees charged do not relate to the cost or quality of the course,” she said.

The review “will examine how we can give people from disadvantaged backgrounds an equal chance to succeed”, including looking at grants for poor students, her office said.

Education Secretary Damian Hinds said students could be charged variable tuition rates depending on the economic value of degrees in the subjects they study.

“Charging more for courses that help graduates earn the most would put off students from most disadvantaged backgrounds from getting those same qualifications,” Labour spokesperson Angela Rayner said. – Reuters