HE creaks under market forces

NUS (National Union of Students) has launched a report highlighting the faults of the university funding system in unprecedented detail. In ‘Broke and Broken: A Critique of the Higher Education Funding System’, NUS demonstrates what it sees as unfairness and lack of sustainability in the current system, and argues that the scenario can only get worse if the cap on top-up fees were raised or lifted.

NUS President Wes Streeting said: “Market forces have already crept into our higher education system. More prestigious universities in the Russell Group are able to offer poorer students an average annual bursary of £1,791, but less prestigious universities in the Million+ group are only able to offer £680. There is clearly a market of prestige at work, with financial support being based not on how much you need it but on where you study.

“And things will only get worse if the cap on top-up fees is raised. If the cap were raised to, say, £7,000, and a true market of price emerges, some students will end up owing almost £40,000 on graduation. This is a staggering amount, which in some cases will actually exceed the amount of money they can expect to gain from their degree over the course of their entire working life.

“Political parties need to stop burying their heads in the sand over the issue of higher education funding. We need to have a proper debate about a viable alternative to the current system, which is creaking under the pressure of market forces. We need to alleviate that pressure, not exacerbate it by contemplating the raising of the fees cap.”