Scrap Tuition Fees (South West Surrey Liberal Democrats)

South West Surrey Liberal Democrats <info@swsurreylibdems.org.uk>

Scrap Tuition Fees

February 1, 2001 12:00 AM

The Times Higher Educational Supplement has backed the LibDems' policy of abolishing student tuition fees.

For some time pressure has been mounting on the Government to bring an end to university tuition fees. Labour introduced the £1,000 a year charge despite it never being mentioned in their 1997 general election manifesto.

The Liberal Democrats, who warned the Government that this "student poll tax" would lead to a surge in poverty, say that their success in scrapping the fees for Scottish students, is leaving the government with no choice but to end the fees for students throughout the rest of the UK too.

It is because of Liberal Democrat insistence that the coalition government in the Scottish Parliament abolished the fees north of the border. The LibDems refused to join the coalition unless this demand was met. At the end of last year the Liberal Democrats entered government in the Welsh Assembly as coalition partners. Again, insistence on campaigning for the Welsh Assembly to be able to abolish tuition fees was a condition.

Despite the unfairness of only English, Welsh and Northern Irish students being left with the cost of paying for their university places, the Government are still refusing to budge. The LibDems are now pointing to a report from the

Government's own education department, which reveals that student poverty has trebled.

"The Government must take notice of their own evidence. The fees are causing real poverty and putting many students off the idea of further education altogether", said local LibDem Parliamentary Spokesman, Simon Cordon.