THE COST of university education in England is expected to double following a report to be released tomorrow.
But Liberal Democrat ministers are under pressure from their grassroots for backing away from a pre-election promise to introduce a graduate tax which would have seen higher earners pay more later on.
The report, written by the former chief executive of BP Lord Browne, recommends that the cap in England on tuition fees should rise from £3,290 (€3,770) to £7,000 a year. Student leaders and the Labour Party are among those who warn it will create discrimination, leaving poorer students unable to attend third level.
On Saturday, Lib Dem business secretary Vince Cable backed away from his party’s deeply held demand for a graduate tax, saying it was not the way forward. But he indicated that graduates could be charged higher interest on loans if they subsequently earn more than the average, along with subsidies for those who do not.
Defending the retreat, Lib Dem energy secretary Chris Huhne said the graduate tax “was enormously attractive in principle”, but would lead to “unintended consequences” since it could not be imposed on foreign students educated in the UK who later work elsewhere. Secondly, it would not raise money quickly. “We are in a very constrained position.”
Lib Dem MPs, including party leader and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, signed pledges during the election campaign to block tuition-fee increases.
A number of their MPs are particularly vulnerable since they represent constituencies with big student populations, who backed them in large numbers in 2005 and 2010.
Two former Lib Dem leaders, Menzies Campbell and Charles Kennedy, have already expressed concern about abandoning the tuition fees pledge.
The party’s youth wing has said it will organise its own membership to campaign against it. The National Union of Students has accused the party of a “complete betrayal”.
Newly elected Labour leader Ed Miliband urged Lib Dem MPs to oppose the measure when it comes before the House of Commons.
Under the Browne plan, universities will be able to keep all of the fees up to £7,000 a year. But elite universities, such as Oxford and Cambridge, would be able to charge more. However, they would be forced to pass on a proportion of higher fees to the government.
Meanwhile, senior coalition ministers denied that divisions are growing between them about the wisdom of the pace of implementation of planned cutbacks.
Conservative transport secretary Philip Hammond sought to calm fears of a double-dip recession: “We have always said that the reductions in public spending will be over a four-year period. This isn’t going to be a cliff edge next year.
“So if a department is reducing its spending by 25 per cent overall, it won’t be 25 per cent in year one. It will be maybe 6 per cent in year one, and 6 per cent in year two.”