Kennedy: Students shouldn’t be burdened with debt
Students should not be emerging from university with huge debts, Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy said this morning.
Launching his party’s higher education policies, Mr Kennedy said that the current policy of tuition fees both saddled young people with enormous debts – preventing them getting on the housing ladder and delaying them starting pensions or a family – and deterred young people from going to university.
Pointing out that many of the MPs who had voted for fees had benefited from free higher education and grants, Mr Kennedy said: “The Liberal Democrats don’t just oppose top-up and student tuition fees because we disagree with the policy.
“There is nothing more nauseating in public life to observe than the sight of Labour MPs… trooping through the division lobbies, in clear breach of a promise given in a manifesto they were elected on in the last general election, to pull up the ladder of opportunity behind them.”
The Liberal Democrats are proposing scrapping tuition and top-up fees and providing grants of up to £2,000 for poorer students.
Mr Kennedy believes university fees would be a central issue of the campaign, saying that it goes “to the heart of the question of trust”. Pointing out that Labour had previously said they would not introduce tuition fees in 1997 and 2001, Mr Kennedy said: “What can you believe?”
The Liberal Democrat leader defended his policies from accusations that the dustman would pay for the doctor, pointing out that free higher education would be funded by a new top rate of income tax.
Education spokesman Phil Willis added that 82 per cent of those earning £100,000 a year or over were graduates and those which had benefited most financially from university.
He claimed that Labour had “let down both students and universities” with their higher education policies, saying that the universities had not received extra funding from the fees, claiming it had instead been knocked off the central grant.
But, the Conservatives said that they were the only party which would be able to scrap tuition fees.
Shadow Education Secretary Tim Collins, said: “The Lib Dems claim to have abolished fees in Scotland. A lie. They have colluded with Labour in the Assembly to introduce student charges of £2,000 that will only increase levels of debt for young people.
“Labour have also shamelessly betrayed students’ trust by breaking promises made at the last two elections not to introduce fees. Within a month, Conservatives will outline action to abolish tuition fees and ensure university access is decided entirely on merit. We will also put in place clear financial incentives for universities to build up endowments for future scholarships and bursaries.”
