Theresa May admits tuition fees system is broken - but plans new attacks on students

Organise to kick out the rest of the Tories

Socialist Students, photo Mary Finch (Click to enlarge)

Theo Sharieff, Socialist Students national organiser

Theresa May has admitted that her and the Tories got it wrong on tuition fees and higher education funding.

The headline proposals, contained in the long delayed Auger report, are to reduce tuition fees to £7,500 and give students from poorer families a £3,000-a-year maintenance grant, admitting that the Tories in 2015 got it wrong.

This is welcome news to students who have been forced to take out loans and accrue debt just for choosing to pursue studies in higher education. It's a reflection of the massive pressure the Tories are under - terrified of the huge anger their policies of cuts and austerity have created.

Even worse

But other suggestions in the report make the situation even worse. Even the recommendation to cut fees by a small amount to £7,500 is cover for vicious attacks on students and low-paid graduates in debt.

The plan suggests extending the period former students repay their loans from 30 to 40 years! Moreover, the report suggests lowering the income threshold for loan repayments to begin - meaning that even lower-paid young workers will be forced to give up their wages towards paying off loans and extortionate interest, simply for going to university.

Clearly these changes are intended so that the government has more time to claw back money from the huge and growing pile of national student debt.

The debt stands at £118 billion, and is predicted by the government to reach £450 billion by 2050 without inflation. Three-quarters of students will not pay back their loan in full by the time it is wiped, and the state will be footing the bill.

The Tories are aware that they are presiding over an economic time bomb. Desperately, they are attempting to remedy that by fighting to further shackle former students, as we age into retirement, with a lifetime of paying back debt.

But even the proposal to reduce tuition fees is a poisoned chalice. When the Tory-Lib Dem coalition trebled tuition fees back in 2012, the government cut it's funding to universities, so universities were forced to rely on student tuition fees to stay afloat.

With the report suggesting a decrease of tuition fees to a still ludicrous £7,500 a year, and no proposal for the government to plug the funding gap, universities would face a huge cut to funding - resulting in cuts to courses, redundancies, and closures.

Scandalously, bosses of the Russell Group, vice-chancellors from elite universities, came out in March to rally against reducing tuition fees for this reason, pretending that there would be no alternative. This however isn't true.

A mass struggle of students united with workers to end austerity could provide free, fully funded university education. Jeremy Corbyn raised abolishing tuition fees in the 2017 general election.

Cancel the debt

And Socialist Students says he should go further - to not only scrap tuition fees entirely and to introduce living grants for all students, but also to cancel all outstanding student debt.

With Theresa May almost gone, now is the time to launch that fightback. Tens of thousands of students have already been walking out against climate change, furious at the state of education too.

Corbyn and the National Union of Students should launch a mass campaign to oppose these Tory plans.

A campaign to fight for free education which mobilised students and workers in demonstrations and strikes could help bring the end of the Tory government which is tearing itself apart with yet another leadership contest - and fight for an anti-austerity Corbyn-led government on a socialist programme.

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Finance appeal

The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.

The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.

The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.

The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.