Tuition Fees

Debate between John Denham and Steve McCabe

Tuesday 30th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Denham]

I would like to make a bit more progress, for the reasons that I have given.

In defending the current system, let me say that it is not perfect. Student choice should be one, but only one, of the means by which it can be improved. On these key points, we do not agree with Lord Browne. There is nothing in the immediate economic circumstance that justifies betting the whole house on a higher education market for which there is neither justification nor evidence.

Of course, the coalition says, “You set up Browne, you should support him.” Let us be clear, however, that the coalition is not implementing Lord Browne’s proposals either. He says that his proposals are a complete package to be taken as a whole, but in significant respects the Government’s plans differ from his. He said that student numbers should rise by 10% over the next three years, that fees should not be capped and that there should be a clawback to deter unnecessarily high fees and that the right to go to university should be determined by academic qualifications. He proposed higher grants for middle income students. On all those things, the coalition has said no to Lord Browne. Last Thursday, at the Universities UK conference, Lord Browne signally failed to endorse the Government’s plans, although he was given every opportunity to do so. The coalition’s proposals are not Lord Browne’s. They are a bastardised, compromised, coalitionised parody of the Browne report.

What are the Government planning to do? Beyond the cuts in teaching grant and the huge rise in fees, it is far from clear. So two weeks ago, I sent the Business Secretary a series of questions that needed to be answered. I copied that letter to every Member of this House. I thank him for replying last night, but if his reply is the best he can do, he would have been better sending it second class without a stamp. He has failed to answer almost every important question. He says in his letter that waiting for the White Paper would be “unfair” to prospective students and their families, but students need to know exactly how they will be expected to pay back their debt. He says that universities need certainty, but they do not just need to know what the fee levels will be. They need to know what the access rules will be, what their responsibilities will be to fund outreach activities, how many students they will be competing for and how many institutions can offer degrees. None of those questions has been answered.

[Steve McCabe (Birmingham, Selly Oak) (Lab)]

I am grateful to my right hon. Friend. Has he seen the Business Secretary’s comments in the autumn 2010 edition of the Lib Dems’ “Scottish News Extra”? The Business Secretary likened tuition fees to the poll tax and said that they were an unfair weight around students’ necks. He went on to say:

“It surely cannot be right that a teacher or care worker or research scientist is expected to pay the same graduate contribution as a top commercial lawyer.”

Is that not exactly what he is going to do to students here?

[Mr Denham]

As it happens, I am familiar with the autumn edition of “Scottish News Extra”. My hon. Friend, wanting brevity, left out the best bit. They are still at it. The next bit of the article says:

“The Lib Dems want to scrap tuition fees across the UK”.

They are utterly shameless in what they will say, which can be contrasted with what they will do.

Let me return to the questions that the House has a responsibility to have answered before the vote. Last week, the president of UUK, Professor Steve Smith—I have summarised his speech, I hope accurately—said:

“Students, their families, and our universities, deserve to know the full details of what is planned.

The Government has promised a White Paper. But this has already moved back in its planning from before Christmas to next March. We then expect an HE Bill in 2011. But this is too long to wait for critical details…First, what does the Government plan to do about student numbers?”

He went on:

“The second unanswered question is the future of the teaching grant. How much will there be left in the budget and how will it be targeted…Thirdly, what provision will there be to support programmes such as widening participation?”

The Secretary of State says that he does not want to

“rush to judgement on the sorts of issues outlined in”

my letter,

“such as the future regulatory landscape and the parameters for supply side reform.”

Those issues will determine the market in which fees must be set. They are crucial to the decisions that universities have to make in the next three months. Although the Secretary of State does not want to rush to judgment, he wants this House to rush to judgment on introducing the highest fees of any public university system in the industrialised world.