University fees crisis
rs21 members in UCU •UCU members explain the challenges of organising in the face of the market-driven crisis affecting education, which affects students and university workers alike.
Higher education in Britain faces a crisis. Already 67 universities are attempting to push through redundancies and restructuring programmes and the number is growing. With many institutions running financial deficits, there is a real risk of some collapsing.
Most recently, Sunderland University has announced plans to axe the jobs of 76 academic and professional services staff. Management intends for some of the jobs to be gone by the beginning of November.
The roots of the crisis lie back in 2010 when the coalition government in Westminster forced through massive increases in annual tuition fees in the teeth of determined opposition from students. The new tuition fees meant that in England, the government largely ended its direct financial support for teaching. However, higher education is devolved to the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish administrations. None of them adopted the English system and the Scottish government retained free full-time degree study for Scottish students, albeit with tight caps on student numbers. Nevertheless, the impact of the new high fee regime In England was felt across all four nations through cross border recruitment and competition for students and funding. In a marketised system, differentiation between institutions increased sharply. Options for students narrowed with the purpose of education defined as ‘employability’ and students framed and treated as consumers. Elite institutions attracted ever increasing numbers of overseas students paying very high fees and received large amounts of additional funding from research grants and bequests. Meanwhile, the institutions with the least resources struggled to get by, with most of their income coming from home student fees.
University managements embraced the marketised system and welcomed the new high fee regime. But as time has gone by and fee levels have remained unchanged, they now argue that on average the cost of teaching a student for a year exceeds the fee by around £3000. For a while, even for poorer institutions, the growing gap was mitigated by income from overseas students. Many universities behaved as if this was a funding source that would grow forever. Tory changes to immigration and visa policy put an end to that dream. Overseas student numbers have dipped sharply.
The funding crisis is likely to provide an early test for the new Labour government. In the run up to the election Starmer went back on a 2020 commitment to abolish student fees – telling the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme on 22 July that
“Looking at the costing for tuition fees or abolishing them, looking at the money we need to put into the NHS, I’ve taken the decision that we can’t do both. That’s a difficult decision, I’ll accept that …”
Bridget Phillipson, the new Secretary of State for Education, has said that the Graduate Route visa, which was under review earlier this year, and allows students to remain in the UK for two years post graduation, will be maintained by the Labour government. But Labour has no plans to remove the ban on most overseas students bringing their partners or children with them. When asked about the perilous financial state of many universities Phillipson wouldn’t rule out fee increases and was adamant that the government will not act as a ‘lender of last resort’. The UCU has called for the government to provide emergency funding to underwrite any university that is experiencing genuine financial hardship, and has asked for government intervention to call a halt to all redundancies. However, UCU General Secretary Jo Grady’s response to Phillipson was weaker than what is needed and failed to acknowledge that New Labour is determined to maintain a large degree of continuity in policy with the Tories.
The level of fee increases that many universities will need to cover costs will have a dramatic impact on students and increase the already high level of indebtedness. On average students in England finishing undergraduate degrees were almost £45,000 in debt between 2020 and 2023. The marketised system has not only reinforced inequality between institutions but is also highly skewed in favour of well-off students. Rich students tend to pay off the loans straight after graduation. For the majority who can’t do this the amount owed increases annually through the application of interest and if their pay exceeds a defined threshold, they then essentially pay 9% on top of the usual tax rate. Most will never pay off the total and for current undergraduates they will carry on paying for 40 years.
The funding crisis is a national crisis but at the moment UCU members are largely being left to fight alone, university by university. The ongoing trade dispute between UCU senior management and staff means that the annual Higher Education Sector Conference, cancelled in May due to strike action by the union’s staff, has still not been held. This means that the Higher Education Committee has no recent substantive instruction from members as to direction and strategy. There’s an urgent need to develop a coordinated strategy with clear demands that can save jobs and take back higher education from the grip of the market.
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