While student groups across Canada lobby for tuition freezes, scholars across the pond face a more daunting prospect as Britain’s Ministry of Education toys with the idea of deregulation.
Known as “top-up fees,” the plan would allow universities to set their own tuition rates. As of now, all institutes in England charge £1,050 a year for tuition, well below the actual cost of the education, which is estimated at £5,000 a year. The only exception is Buckingham, a privately-owned school.
In the event of deregulation, huge increases are expected at England’s top-tier schools, such as Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial College, the latter of which estimates tuition could rise to £15,000 a year.
Needless to say, the plan has spoiled more than a few tea times.
“These increased fees would result in an elitist system where a student’s wealth, rather than intellect, would determine their success,” said Mandy Telford, president of the National Union of Students, in an interview with the London newspaper The Guardian.
Another newspaper, the Daily Express, wondered why today’s students should pay for higher education when Prime Minister Tony Blair and his cabinet all went to school for free.
Tuition fees are themselves a new phenomenon in England, re-introduced in 1997 when the Maintenance Grant was abolished. But with public funding for education dropping in the past two decades, universities are claiming an additional £10 billion is needed to rescue post-secondary institutions from their current dearth. According to The Guardian, universities are currently spending all their funding on “immediate teaching and research,” putting seemingly essential things such as maintenance “on the backburner.”
For Prime Minister Blair, the contentious issue is one that must be faced sooner than later. During debates in the House of Commons, Blair, possibly foreshadowing a British brain drain, maintained that Britain “cannot go on with a situation where our top universities are not able to compete in what is effectively a world market today.” Opponents to the top-up fees have suggested raising tuition across the board, which would potentially circumvent the possibility of a U.S.-style two-tier education system, where tuition fees at Ivy League schools such as Harvard or Princeton can hit $40,000 (U.S.) a year or more.
Top-up fees have become a millstone around Prime Minister Blair’s neck lately, with several prominent members of his own cabinet coming out against the idea, and former Education Secretary Estelle Morris stating that “We have got to carry on expanding the number of people going to university. It is about social justice and opportunity.”
Compounding the problem is the fact that Blair promised not to raise tuition during the last election, although he did leave the door open for “other fees,” a category the top-ups would most certainly fall under.
