Support Staff and Students, Against the Tuition Fee Increase

Back to all Motions

Conference
2024 National Young Members' Conference
Date
21 November 2024
Decision
Carried

Conference Notes That:

1 The Secretary of State for Education, Bridget Phillipson, has announced that tuition fees for higher education in England will be increased by 3.1% for the next academic year, for new and continuing students.

2 This will bring full-time fees up to £9,535, and part-time fees up to £7,145.

3 This is the first increase in tuition fees since 2017, under a previous Conservative government.

4 Labour’s 2024 election manifesto stated that ‘the current higher education funding settlement does not work for the taxpayer, universities, staff, or students’.

5 The Universities and College Union (UCU) live page ‘UK HE Shrinking’ currently lists 77 current university redundancy programs, totalling hundreds of millions of pounds worth of cuts and hundreds of job losses.

6 Residents of Scotland do not pay tuition fees to attend university in Scotland, but the increase in tuition fees will apply to students from England, Wales and Northern Ireland who study at a Scottish university.

Conference Believes That:

1. Placing students into higher debt only serves to harm them in the long term and will not solve the present issues in higher education.

2. Treating education as a commodity harms all workers in the sector.

3. Education should not be a commodity but a public service, free for all home and international students, and funded by higher taxes on the rich and big businesses.

Conference calls on the National Young Members Forum to:

1. Work with UNISON’s National Executive Council (NEC) and Labour Link to oppose the rise in tuition fees and call for a sustainable funding solution for higher education which does not place the financial burden on students.

2. Work with the Higher Education service group to oppose the commodification of higher education and expose how it harms the sector and its workers.