Higher Education Fees

Debate between Rehman Chishti and Richard Graham

Thursday 9th December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Richard Graham]

Does my hon. Friend agree that, a student who goes on to earn £25,000 a year—the average salary—will repay that loan at the rate of £30 a month for 30 years, and that that represents a substantially good deal?

[Rehman Chishti]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point. To ensure that students from different backgrounds can go to the some of the highest-performing universities, we must also make sure that students from less privileged backgrounds have better grades at GCSE and at A-level. I therefore welcome the initiative of the Secretary of State for Education on the pupil premium and the student premium as a way forward.

Increasing the maintenance grant from £2,900 to £3,250 is a good thing for students from families earning under £25,000. Students whose parents earn above £25,000 and up to £40,000 will still be able to get a partial maintenance grant. Beyond that, those from families earning £42,000 to £60,000 can be given loans so that they can go to university. Students in my constituency who go to study in London can have London weighting paid on their maintenance grants.

Part-time students were treated unfairly and unjustly for so long. They often got a raw deal—and they were often mature students and disabled students. It was wrong that they could not get funding to ensure that they could go to university and fulfil their potential. Our policy on that is absolutely right.

It is right and proper that money should follow the student so that universities have to improve student experiences and ensure that they improve the quality of education.

The previous Government’s policy of 50% going to university was wrong and misplaced. Instead, they should have ensured more vocational qualifications and apprenticeships because we all have different abilities and talents, and they must all be nurtured. In essence, we have to look at the reason for being in this mess: the previous Government’s mismanagement of the economy. [Hon. Members: “Oh!”] That will not do. We have one of the worst financial deficits in the G20—the legacy that the previous Government left us.