We need funding not fees

James Taylor, Birmingham Socialist Students

Student life has only become more expensive over the last decade, with tuition fees rising and the cost of living skyrocketing. During this same period, successive governments have chipped away at maintenance grants, replacing them with loans which burden students for life.

Now, university vice-chancellors are threatening to cut what few meagre bursaries are still available. A Universities UK poll found that hardship support for working-class students could be on the chopping block, with around one third of vice-chancellors saying they would cut grants and outreach programmes if the funding crisis isn’t resolved.

Students are increasingly having to take part-time jobs to the detriment of their studies in order to afford food, rent and bills. It would be unforgivable for university management to cut support to these students who need it most, especially while the same vice-chancellors talking about the lack of money in universities continue to make upwards of £400,000 a year.

The impact of decades of cuts and tuition fees means higher education floats from one funding crisis to another, with its financial dependence on international students looking increasingly precarious.

This same survey found 90% of universities are looking at hiring freezes or voluntary redundancies. As many university employees discovered the hard way in the last few years, it is a slippery slope from hiring freezes to the closure of entire departments.

Socialist Students are fighting back against cuts to jobs and grants. In the short term, action by students in conjunction with industrial action by education unions can prevent cuts. But we also must provide a vision for what education could be if provided for the good of society. The wealth is there in society but it is sucked away as profits are hoarded by a few.

Tuition fees should be scrapped, grants reestablished, and staff jobs made secure. This change is achievable if we fight for it.