Greens Urge Norwich City Council To Condemn Student Tution Fees
23 February 2010
In a move which should be of special interest to the fourteen thousand students across Norwich, the fees issue will be up for discussion at a council meeting on Tuesday (March 2nd). Labour members want the council simply to express its opposition to further increases in fees. Green Party councillors will go further, inviting the council to back the proposal that the fees system should be scrapped in favour of a return to grants.
Lord Browne, the former boss of BP, is chairing an enquiry into the effectiveness of the fees system which Charles Clarke introduced in 2004. Many fear it will result in fees being raised again, discouraging young people from poorer backgrounds from going to university and saddling those who do with even bigger debts after graduation. Green Party councillor and General Election candidate in Norwich South, Adrian Ramsay, will be making his own submission to the Browne enquiry. He led a campaign at the University of East Anglia against the introduction of the top up fees system at the time. Now he has been the first local General Election candidate to sign up to the new Norwich Student Manifesto which calls for fair funding in higher education with no fees increase in the next Parliament.
Councillor Ramsay said:
“I oppose the current fees system altogether. If I replace Charles Clarke as MP I will fight for tuition fees to be replaced by a fairer funding system involving a return to grants for students so that talented young people can go to university regardless of their background. Norwich already has a lower proportion of students going to university than most UK cities and I'm concerned that tuition fees are putting them off. The only fair way for students to pay towards their education is through income tax after they enter employment. Higher education nurtures the talents of students for the benefit of society, so it should be paid for as a public service.”
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