'Preserve of the rich'warning

STUDENT union leaders at two top universities in Yorkshire have warned that removing a cap on tuition fees will mean accessing the best quality higher education will become “a preserve of the rich”.

Leeds University Union official Rachel Wenstone said that accepting the Browne review would lead to the “marketisation” of higher education with the best-performing universities able to charge more meaning poorer candidates would have to look elsewhere.

She said: “The doubling of tuition fees is not progressive. It can only be seen as regressive.”

She told a Press conference at the university yesterday that as the entire country benefited from higher education it was unfair that only graduates were being asked to pay more to cover a shortfall in funding.

Sheffield University Union president Josh Forstenzer said the proposals in the report would be a disaster for young people. He said: “It would condemn graduates to crippling debts of more than 45,000 and do nothing to widen access to universities.

“Lord Browne’s proposals would limit the choices of tens of thousands of young people and their families in and around Sheffield.

“Under the proposed system, university access would be less about academic ability and more about the ability to pay.

“People from less well off backgrounds would have to choose where to study based on cost, while the rich would be able to study at elite institutions across the country.”