Yorkshire university chief attacks £9,000 cap on student fees

Leeds University vice chancellor Prof Michael Arthur also praised the Tony Blair government for introducing student fees in the first place saying, “It was a brave thing and the right thing to do.”

He was giving evidence to the Commons Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee yesterday at a hearing on the future of the higher education sector.

MPs questioned a panel of vice chancellors representing different groups of universities on the impact higher fees will have and on the role the state should play in funding higher education. An 80 per cent cut in teaching budgets means universities are set to raise fees to as high as £9,000 – the cap imposed by Ministers last year.

Prof Arthur, who is also chairman of the elite research-led Russell Group of universities, told MPs he had welcomed the findings of the Browne Review – which had recommended that universities should charge what they want on the contingency that there were no upfront fees for students to pay. He also welcomed the first introduction of graduate fees but said the balance of paying for higher education had now moved toward the student and that there would be opportunity for the state to increase its share of the costs once the nation’s finances had improved.

Prof Arthur also told newly-elected Labour MP for Barnsley, Dan Jarvis, that launching another review of university finance would be “devastating” as the sector had been coping with uncertainty for several years.

Bradford East MP David Ward welcomed his comments that scaremongering over the cost of fees could put people off entering higher education.

The Liberal Democrat MP said: “Certain groups and organisations are frightening people and then saying ‘people are too frightened to go to university’.”

However, Prof Les Ebdon, the vice chancellor of Bedfordshire University and chairman of the Million-plus group said he feared that higher fees would prevent poorer students from going to university.