HIGHER EDUCATION
Labour Manifesto 2017:
Labour believes education should be free, and we will restore this principle. No one should be put off educating themselves for lack of money or through fear of debt.
There is a real fear that students are being priced out of university education. Last year saw the steepest fall in university applications for 30 years.
Since the Conservatives came to power, university tuition fees have been trebled to over £9,000 a year, and maintenance grants have been abolished and replaced with loans.
The average student now graduates from university, and starts their working life, with debts of £44,000.
Labour will reintroduce maintenance grants for university students, and we will abolish university tuition fees.
University tuition is free in many northern European countries, and under a Labour government it will be free here too.
Debt-free Education: Grants not debts -> Higher education: policy, people and politics.
University fees is a ‘TAX’ on learning. The burden of debt is highest for students from the poorest backgrounds, who rely on additional loans to support themselves through university, due to the scrapping of maintenance grants.
“Since last year, Jeremy Corbyn has elevated the cause of free education to the highest political level. This week, he is laying detailed policies that together will create a National Education Service – a much more ambitious plan for a comprehensive service which is free and accessible to everyone.
It has become normal to regard free education as a “radical” idea in Britain recently – but free tertiary education is the norm in many European countries. If accompanied by adequate maintenance support, it would give millions of young people a debt-free start in life.
What is genuinely radical is the scale of Corbyn’s plan. The National Education Service includes a policy of free universal childcare, removing barriers to participation that fall disproportionately on women, and an integrated system which breaks down the barriers between vocational and traditional education, and opening access to the system to learners throughout their lives.”
