Take the Union's Higher Education Funding Survey
Friday 25 Jan 2008
Today, the Union launches its Higher Education funding survey. If you want to influence the Union’s policy and stance on HE funding, take it online now by heading to imperialcollegeunion.org/hesurvey. Below is an overview of how we’ve arrived at this point and what could possibly happen in the future
Why are we all talking about HE funding again?!
At the start of last term, Imperial College Union Council passed a policy to revise its stance on Higher Education funding, pending a consultation with the student body. The Union’s old policy mandated it to campaign for free education. Our President, Stephen Brown, and Deputy President (Education & Welfare), Kirsty Patterson, believed that “free education funded entirely by the taxpayer is unrealistic.”
Rather than having Council determine what the new policy should be, the Union decided that it should listen to the entire student body to get a broader idea of the views it should be representing. The time has arrived for the consultation to begin; as of today you will be able to go online and complete a survey which asks you questions about your views on Higher Education funding. The answers will be used to form the Union’s revised Higher Education funding policy.
A brief history...
The most significant recent review of Higher Education funding was the Dearing Report in 1997. It was commissioned to find out how funding should develop over the following 20 years. Before 1997 universities were funded entirely by the government from taxpayers’ money. University was free to attend, there were no tuition fees and there were grants for the poor to pay for living expenses.
Sir Ronald Dearing, the lead author of the 1997 inquiry made a number of recommendations to the government, most notably the introduction of £1,000 per year tuition fees. He also recommended the continuation of means tested grants and loans.
The Labour government came to power in 1997 and in 1998 Prime Minister Tony Blair introduced tuition fees. On top of this, Mr Blair introduced student loans which replaced maintenance grants too.
In 2003, Mr Blair announced it had made plans to introduce “top-up fees”. Despite a narrow five vote victory (316-311), the 2004 Higher Education Bill was passed and top-up fees became a reality. Later that year maintenance grants were re-introduced for students from poorer backgrounds. This all leads us to the current funding model...
What’s the current funding model?
If you are starting University now you will be paying top-up fees. At present they are capped at £3,000 and most universities charge the full amount. Top-up fees, unlike tuition fees, are not payable up front. Rather, once you graduate, the fees get paid back automatically from your salary with the amount dependant on thresholds.
Along with a new payment scheme came a new funding and bursary scheme. Students paying £3,000 top-up fees may be eligible for an additional “HE Maintenance Grant”. This makes up a proportion of your total loan amount and is not repayable. The Maintenance Grant is calculated according to your family’s income and acts to reduce the level of debt incurred by students from poor economic backgrounds. A “Special Support Grant” is also available to students entitled to benefits which acts in a similar way to reduce the amount repayable on a student loan.
Institutions are also encouraged to offer bursaries that will widen participation in Higher Education. From 2007 Imperial College has awarded “Student Support Bursaries” of up to £4,000 per year to students from low income families. These bursaries are awarded to cover maintenance and study related costs during a student’s time at Imperial.
What alternative funding methods are there?
Well, some people believe taxpayers should have to pay for Higher Education once again making it free to everyone. However, this would be a major step backwards for the government.
One alternative model to both top-up fees and funding from taxpayers is a Graduate Tax. Students would contribute nothing towards their degree whilst they are studying; there would be no tuition fees. Once a student graduates his/her earnings would have an additional tax on them for a fixed period of time, say 25 years. The tax rate would be fixed for all graduates, meaning that higher earners would pay more than those on lower salaries.
Another suggestion is to revise the distribution of funding depending on the subjects a university teaches. So, for example, universities teaching science based subjects would get more money than those teaching arts subjects because test tubes and lasers cost more than books and paints.
What does the future hold then?
2009 is an important year for students; the government is scheduled to conduct a review of variable top-up fee rates. The cap on top-up fees could be lifted meaning that universities are free to charge students whatever they like. If it’s not lifted completely, it may be raised above £3,000 per year instead. Or... it could just stay the same.
It’s highly unlikely that the government is going to have a sea-change and revert back to free education if previous policies are anything to go by. These reports do not (as can be seen from the Dearing Report) directly dictate policy to the Government. If the role of City Academies (schools funded partially by independent bodies, such as banks and partially by the Government) in secondary education is an indicator, the Government may see the benefits of privatising off both student loans and sectors of the higher education. Imperial College as an elite university may benefit from this whilst others might struggle to compete.
So, how do I take this survey?
Head to: imperialcollegeunion.org/hesurvey
You’ll be asked to give your opinions on the purpose of Higher Education, where funding should come from and also bursaries.
Once you’ve taken the survey you will be invited to leave your email address to be entered into a free prize draw.
The main prize will be two return tickets to Paris on the Eurostar. More prizes will be added as the number of responses increases so watch out for more additional prizes over the coming weeks and get all your friends to fill in the survey.
What’s going to happen with the data?
After the survey the Deputy President (Education & Welfare) and the Representation and Welfare Board will draft a new policy to be voted on at Union Council.
While this piece of paper will not make very much difference on its own it will dictate how all 10 NUS delegates will vote at the NUS Conference in April. It will also give the President and DPEW a mandate to follow when presenting Imperial College Students’ opinions and finally it will provide a powerful and substantial argument for the Great Higher Education Funding Debate which is taking place in March.
This will be an opportunity for Student Unions, academics and politicians to talk about the future of Higher Education Funding ahead of the review in 2009 and will take place over a whole day at Central Hall in Westminster.
News story written by Tom Roberts, Kirsty Patterson and Matty Hoban for Felix