Shropshire university outlines fears over Labour fee cut plan
The quality of education provided by a Shropshire university could suffer if plans being considered by Labour to cut tuition fees go ahead – its vice-chancellor has warned
Dr David Llewellyn of Harper Adams University, in Edgmond near Newport, was speaking after the Labour Party announced it wanted to reduce the cap from £9,000 to £6,000.
Labour has not yet said how it would find the necessary £10 billion over the next parliament to fund such a cut in fees – a task which party leader Ed Miliband has asked shadow chancellor Ed Balls to resolve.
Dr Llewellyn said: "I think it is a difficult problem to address because there are all sorts of numbers flying around the system at the moment and various people suggesting various approaches but as yet we do not quite know what the Labour Party policy is, they have not announced a decision on their policy approach and until they do that we won't be clear on exactly what the fee cap entails."
He added: "It would mean a third of the funding going out of the system per studentunless the Government made up the difference. Under the former funding system when there was a Government grant coming into universities at least for high cost subjects we probably got around about £9,000 per student, in the case of Harper Adams, which runs high cost subjects, we are not getting any more money out of the system under the current approach.
"I think the key thing is there is no clarity over whether a Labour Government could continue to fund the difference between the £6,000 being talked about by the Labour Party and the £9,000 that universities are currently getting."
On the potential effects a cut could have on the Shropshire university, Dr Llewellyn warned the quality of courses could suffer.
He said: "It would be extremely difficult. The quality of education would suffer, our ability to run high cost subjects would be seriously damaged and that is the point the vice chancellors were trying to make.
He added: "I would stay with the current system for the time being. We need a bit of stability we need to see whether over the next couple of years this is impacting on demand -and we need to see how the loan repayment system operates when students accessing the system graduate."
Shadow universities minister Liam Byrne said: "The Tory-led government trebled fees and now it is crystal clear that the student finance system is going bust, saddling students with debts most will never repay of £43,500 on average."
