University bosses call tuition fees ‘unsustainable’ but say they must stay

♦ Tuition fees are unsustainable, half of university vice-chancellors have said, as they believe that the system is “plain unfair” on students.

But two thirds of university bosses said they did not support the Labour policy of abolishing the fees, according to a Times Higher Education survey of vice-chancellors, mainly because most did not think it would be able to make up the shortfall from public funds.

Just over half said their institution had started making contingency plans for funding in case Jeremy Corbyn became prime minister.

David Green, vice-chancellor of the University of Worcester and one of those who backed Labour’s policy, said: “There is a tsunami of opinion that the current system is plain unfair – with too much debt and too high a rate of interest.” Sir Keith Burnett, vice-chancellor of the University of Sheffield, said reform was urgently needed. “If we let it carry on it will result in a decreasing political consensus for the present system,” he said. “You can see it rotting quickly.”

A recent report by the Institute of Fiscal Studies found that almost eight in ten graduates will never pay back their full student loan under the new tuition fees system.