THE BRITISH government, faced with a revolt by Liberal Democrat MPs, has offered last-minute concessions to ensure a Commons majority tonight in the vote to increase third-level fees.
Under the proposals, universities will be entitled to charge students £6,000 (€7,150) or £9,000 (€10,700), depending on their type of course, rather than the £3,000 paid at present.
However, student will now not have to repay state loans for their fees until they earn more than £21,000. Liberal Democrat business secretary Vince Cable said the salary threshold would be increased annually from 2016 – the year graduates would be expected to start paying back loans – rather than every five years.
The £15,000 threshold currently in place for students who get state loans to help cover £3,000-a-year tuition fees will rise in line with inflation from 2012, while part-time students will qualify for loans if they spend a quarter, not a third, of their time in college.
Liberal Democrat ministers are expected to vote for the plan in tonight’s vote, though their backbenchers are likely to abstain or vote against. However, the measure should pass, unless party discipline weakens further in the hours before the vote.
Meanwhile, a university think tank, the Higher Education Policy Institute, warned that state spending on third-level fees will actually rise over the next decade, rather than fall, because of mistakes made in calculating the policy’s impact.
Ministers have made extremely optimistic forecasts about the future earnings of graduates, and also erred in believing there will be an equal number of male and female graduates. In fact, most graduates will be women who will earn less than their male counterparts.
Police in London have prepared for mass protests around the Houses of Parliament today, with some anarchist groups threatening to cause violence and “close down the city”. The National Union of Students is limiting its protest to a candle-lit procession.
During rancorous Commons exchanges, prime minister David Cameron clashed repeatedly with Labour leader Ed Miliband, with Mr Cameron insisting that the proposed system was fairer than the one the Conservative-Liberal Democrat alliance inherited.
Facing Mr Miliband, Mr Cameron said: “He is just demonstrating complete political opportunism, total opportunism. He is behaving like a student politician – and frankly, that’s all he’ll ever be.” The Labour leader replied: “I was a student politician, but I wasn’t hanging around with people throwing bread rolls and wrecking restaurants. Isn’t it the truth that all he can offer us is that you’ve never had it so good on Planet Cameron?”
Later Mr Cameron said state loans to students would rise from £7 billion today to £12 billion in five years, but he insisted the fee rise had to happen because there is “no pot of money” available.
Liberal Democrat climate change secretary of state Chris Huhne is to stay at climate change talks in Mexico, even though Labour refused to offer him a pair.