Nick Clegg: We must defend our universities, and fees are the fairest answer

In recent years, we've seen more and more people going on to study a degree, and that is a good thing. In Yorkshire and Humber over the last decade, the number of students has risen by a third, and we should all welcome that.

But we can no longer escape the extra cost this creates, at a time when we simply do not have the money to pay for it.

Nor can we ignore how unfair the system has become. Too many young men and women from poorer backgrounds still do not even dare to dream of a university education. Even if they are bright and ambitious, they grow up believing university is not for them. Here in Yorkshire, the poorest pupils are three times less likely to go to university than their better off peers.

So, today, the coalition Government is putting forward proposals to put that right. Our reforms will keep our universities world class, while ensuring they open their doors to disadvantaged young people in a way they never have before – from right across Yorkshire and the North.

The reforms are controversial. Universities will be allowed to charge more for their courses – something my party did not support in opposition. But the Liberal Democrats did not win the election. We cannot implement our manifesto in full. And my Ministerial colleagues and I are not prepared to duck the difficult decisions.

In an ideal world, no graduate would have to contribute more for their degree. But our economic reality is far from ideal. The real decision now is not if we reform university funding, but how we reform it. And how we help the people who need it most.

So we have a choice. One option would be to slash university places to levels we can afford. We would end up reversing the welcome expansion of our higher education system. For thousands of students, university would cease to be an option at all.

Another possibility is a graduate tax – favoured by the NUS and, at times, Labour's front bench. Yet, not only could such a system be avoided by graduates who move abroad; many graduates would find themselves facing much higher payments each month.

The best course of action, given the challenges we now face, is the one MPs will vote on today. Much of the detail has been lost in the recent, heated, debate.

That is the real shame, because the facts should speak for themselves.

Under our plans, a quarter of the lowest income graduates will repay less than they do now. And all graduates will pay out less per month. Nobody will pay a penny back until their earnings reach 21,000 per year, compared to the current 15,000.

Highest-earning graduates will pay back the most. And, for the first time since Labour introduced fees, part-time students will no longer be singled out to pay for their courses upfront.

Crucially, our package contains a new and serious effort to help bright pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds in to university. It is nothing short of a national disgrace that Oxford and Cambridge take more students each year from just two schools – Eton and Westminster – than from among the 80,000 school leavers who are eligible for free school meals. Scandalously, the number of disadvantaged students going to these universities is going down, not up. And a young adult from an affluent background is now seven times more likely to go to a top university than one from a poor background.

So the Government's plans include a 150m a year National Scholarship Programme to help correct this imbalance.

Universities that charge over 6,000 per year will be compelled to match our scholarships, and out of every new student intake up to 18,000 students from poorer backgrounds could qualify for two years free tuition.

Universities wanting to charge higher fees will be required to take in more pupils from deprived backgrounds, with proper sanctions if they don't.

The real test for the Government's reforms should be the extent to which our universities become an engine of social mobility. These proposals go hand in hand with our decision to target additional cash to the most disadvantaged children when they are at school, and to prioritise early years funding for toddlers from poorer households.

At every step of the educational cycle, even in these straitened times, we want to ensure that no young person from Sheffield, Leeds, Bradford or anywhere else in the country is blighted by the circumstances of their birth.

It's true that the decisions we have taken have not been easy. But the reforms on the table today are the right ones. They are now the best possible way forward for our universities and our students. And at their heart is our commitment to building a more open and more mobile Britain.

Nick Clegg is the Deputy Prime Minister and Sheffeld Hallam MP.