By Joe Rukin
Thousands of students will attend the NUS national demonstration on December 4th, but how many of them will know just what their union is asking for in their name? While opposition to top-up fees is clear and there for all to see, the position of the national union on Graduate tax has clearly been a different matter. Whilst the union is now shifting it's campaign so as not to ignore policy, will it be too late?
Individual Student Unions are making it clear that they oppose both proposals in the strongest possible terms. On 2nd December, Alan Simpson MP, one of the backbenchers at the heart of the Labour revolt attended a balloon release at Nottingham Trent Student Union. Simpson encouraged students and parents to come together in the fight for a properly funded education, before echoing the 'Real Labour not New Labour' views of FBU leader Andy Gilchrist, claiming
'New Labour is more like a Tupperware party than a political party"
Matt Wallace |
Each balloon represented £12k worth of debt, the average bourn by the 1176 Trent students who completed a debt survey, which totalled over £10m. Matt Wallace, Communications Officer was clear about Trents' objectives;
"Our intention is to heighten the awareness of the student funding crisis that we face, and say that together we can make a stand to draw attention to our cause. The cabinet divide on funding is now coming into play, and we're very grateful for all the work Alan Simpson has done. Top-up fees would be an outright disaster, and the whole argument for graduate tax, that graduates earn about £400k more over a lifetime has no effect at all, because besides that being taken on current figures where graduates make up a smaller percentage of the population than they will in the future if 50% go into HE, a high-earning graduate will be hit more heavily in income tax anyway -so why tax them twice. We at Trent stand firmly against the idea of higher fees and any tax on graduates." |
But when you ask NUS President Mandy Telford what she thinks the funding the future campaign is for, you will only get half of that answer. On the Times on-line chat last week, someone did exactly that. Carmen Somers asked "What exactly is the march on December 4 about?"
"The march on Wednesday December 4 will be students from all over the country converging on London to call on the government to sort out the current mess surrounding higher education funding. The demo is a vital opportunity for us to drill home the message to the government that top-up fees will cripple higher education and stop thousands of people from being able to attend university. We do not want a situation where access to university is determined by wealth as opposed to ability. It would be a very brave and foolish government which decides to ignore public opinion, so it is vital that as many students as possible get down to London next week to leave the government in no doubt about the strength of feeling on this issue."
Again, when given the opportunity in her column in the Guardian, the talk was of top-up fees. In response to the criticism that the issue of graduate tax is being ignored, Labour NUS sources have said that top-up fees, which would be politically suicidal for the Government are the bigger threat, despite the new Secretary of State for Education & Skills, Charles Clarke, stating graduate tax as his preferred option.
So it was odd that when Clarke was picketed in his own constituency by students from the University of East Anglia, they demonstrated against fees.
Before UEAs Big Noise demo, campaign manger Ned Glaiser said:
"We're trying to create as much noise as is physically possible. The idea is to rally support amongst students and to also send a clear message to Charles Clarke to let him know we won't just stand by and let him introduce fees."
Glasier was flanked at the demo by NUS VPE, Chris Weavers and Telford. Weavers admitted that the campaign had been slow to acknowledge the threat of graduate tax, despite NUS conference voting to oppose it, which had been ignored by the fact the original version of the NUS 'Funding the Future' campaign document did not even mention graduate tax. This at best was ignoring a clear mandate from the membership and being 'slow onto the ball', and at worst- being complicit. Weavers said;
"The public are increasingly against top-up fees and the government will be faced with a backbench rebellion if they try and go ahead. We're increasingly winning the battle on top-up fees, but there's been a shift towards the graduate tax. We're starting to shift our campaign to meet that threat. Our placards at the national demo will now say no to top-up fees and no to the graduate tax. A third placard will call for a return to grants."
'Opposition' Members within the NUS NEC were highly critical of the fact that all the debate on student fees had been about Grad Tax versus Top-Up Fees, as if they were the only solution to the funding crisis in HE. NUS NEC members Kat Fletcher and Daniel Murphy told the Guardian;
"One of the most frustrating aspects of the media debate on higher education funding is that it has taken place almost entirely on the government's terms. Even those critical of the existing system of student support and strongly opposed to proposals for top-up fees have accepted a framework in which increased public funding and free post-16 education are utopian ideals, which in any case would benefit only the middle class. Albeit with nuances and differences of emphasis, this consensus stretches all the way from the most hawkish elements of the Russell Group to much of the leadership of the National Union of Students - which does not make it any less irrational, dishonest or regressive.
It is telling that, even in a liberal paper such as the Guardian, last week's extended discussion of the options for reforming student funding excluded only one: an increase in progressive taxation to cover all our institutions' increasingly desperate needs, from salaries and research costs to student tuition and maintenance. This may be the option supported by the vast majority of students, the education unions and the public as a whole, but it is so far to the left of the official consensus it has largely been excluded from the media.
Funding Special
Top-Up fees via Grad Tax, what a surprise!
Not to say we told you so!
Another 'Huge Victory'- NUS
No Postgrads- coming soon to a uni near you
Participation watchdog to come
Why not GATS?
Mature Students want balanced funding
Straw Strikes Back
NUS National Demo against something....
Step up the offensive
Has NUS acknowledged Graduate Tax?
Times, Talking tuition fees with Mandy Telford
Guardian, Tax the rich, by Kat Fletcher & Daniel Murphy
Guardian, March against Top-Up Fees, by Mandy Telford
Guardian, UEA students make a noise against fees
