Greening: Cutting tuition fees would hit poorer students

POORER students would lose out if university tuition fees were slashed, former education secretary Justine Greening said today.

The senior Tory branded the Government’s mooted proposal to reduce fees from £9,250 to £6,500 a “terrible plan”, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think it’s bad for social mobility. If you have a cap on numbers of students we know the ones that lose out are the ones from lower income families. I think it’s regressive because the people who will end up paying less on student fees will be those from the better off families who are more likely to go to university.”

Universities were given permission to raise fees from £3,000 a year to £9,000 in 2012, and again to £9,250 in 2017. Student numbers have increased steadily despite the higher fees — and poorer students are now more likely to go to university than they were in 2007.