By Vivienne Russell and David Williams
8 December 2010
The government has made further concessions on student fees, promising more help for part-time students and to raise the repayment threshold every year.
Business Secretary Vince Cable said the reforms would usher in a ‘significantly fairer and more progressive new system’.
He added: ‘There is a better deal for students while they are studying and a fairer system of repayments for those who have completed their studies and are realising the benefits of a university education.’
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg last night announced that all LibDem ministers would vote in favour of the student fee changes in tomorrow’s debate.
Under the changes announced today, all part-time undergraduates studying for at least 25% of their time will qualify for full loan support and will no longer have to pay upfront fees. Previously, only a third of part-time students would have been able to access student loans.
In addition, the £21,000 earnings threshold at which repayment begins will be increased annually rather than every five years. No graduate will repay anything until they reach the earnings threshold.
The news came as the University and College Union published research revealing that more than a third of universities have been placed ‘at risk’ as a result of funding changes being introduced by the government.
The UCU study found that 49 of England’s 130 higher education institutions were vulnerable to merger or closure as a result of the reforms. The report quoted Cable as saying that many universities were ‘essentially bankrupt’ and should not be propped up by the government.
Universities at risk: the impact of higher education spending cuts on local economies found that four institutions – Bishop Grosseteste University College in Lincoln; Edge Hill University; Newman University College; and Norwich University College of the Arts – were at ‘very high’ risk.
UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said: ‘More than one in three of England’s universities could find themselves in real trouble once the landscape of higher education changes and funding cuts bite.
She added: ‘The worst-case scenario is closure.’ Previous UCU research showed that nine out of ten university leaders thought at least one institution in England would have to close.
Hunt underlined the importance of universities to their local economies as providers of a range of jobs.
‘Their impact reaches far beyond students and lecturers,’ Hunt said. ‘They are wealth-creators for communities. It is a brave MP who decrees that any institution should be allowed to go to the wall.’
The report found that every £1 spent on universities generated on average an additional £1.38 of output in other industries.
