05 December 2003
As Prime Minister Tony Blair was again forced to defend the government's controversial plan to impose university top-up fees on students, Minister for Higher Education Alan Johnson was grilled by MPs on the controversial issue.
Under questioning from the Commons' education and skills committee on December 3, Johnson disputed claims that top-up fees would bring market forces galloping into the sector and give institutions carte blanche to charge what they like.
'We're moving from a system where the fee was regulated to a system of variable fees. If we lifted the £3,000 cap then that would be unbridled market forces,' he said.
A Bill that would introduce variable fees formed the centrepiece of the Queen's Speech. As students lobbied Parliament, Blair continued to insist in a Commons confrontation with Tory opposition leader Michael Howard that there would be 'no retreat' on the issue.
Johnson told the committee that universities should be trusted to raise their own funds – a freedom that was a huge part of the higher education modernisation agenda. He added that top-up fees would widen access to university and help close the social gap, encouraging more working-class students to apply to university.
'Of course debt will be an issue. No one can pretend it's not a factor but it's not the most important factor,' he told the committee.
Asked by committee member David Chaytor whether he would intervene to redistribute funds from the strongest universities to the weakest should marked differences emerge, Johnson said he would 'seriously consider' it, but added that he didn't see a widening income gap as a likely consequence of the variable fee.
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