As I sat in the main lecture theatre of Keele
University on their Wednesday open day, watching
a presentation on student finance I began to
understand the true extent of student poverty and
the bleak position we as students face.
Funding and hardship is an issue extremely close
to the hearts of all students. Many studying at
Thomas Rotherham, including myself intend to
progress into higher education; however an
increased number are deterred by rising student
debt and the prospect of poverty, bringing into
question the equality of our entire education
system.
Our government, elected in 1997 with a cry of
"education, education, education" have
increasingly alienated young voters by abolishing
grants for higher education and reintroducing
fees, in addition Further Education students
living in Rotherham have faced an uneven field,
unable to benefit from the trial educational
Maintenance Allowance offered to those studying
in the same college but living in other parts of
the region.
The Guardian reported last month that a total of
51 universities and colleges in England missed
their student targets by more than 2% this
academic year and 2001 applications for many
institutions, particularly for new universities,
are looking worst. Evidence shows that the the
Prime Minister's promise of a 50% university
participation rate for under 30s is not being met.
In contrast applications in England have been
lagging behind Scotland where the Liberal
Democrats form a coalition in the devolved
parliament. North of the border 58% of 17 to 30
year olds participate in Higher Education where
Labour has agreed to spend an extra £51 million
on student support, with the abolition of tuition
fees and the creation of a graduate endowment to
help pay for the reintroduction of a grant of £2000
per per student, every year. The Cubie report in
Scotland has recorded the fact that tuition fees
are 'largely discredited'.
Thursday 1st March, marked National Shutdown day
for Higher Education a campaign organised and co-ordinated
by the National Union of Students. Students were
effectively encouraged to opt out of lecturers
for the day in favour of mass picketing, rallies
and petitioning which was the culmination of a
week of campaigning nationally by Students'
Unions including TRSU, with the aim of focusing
the attention of government firmly on the plight
of students.
The Liberal Democrats have estimated that 32,000
people each year miss out on a university
education as a direct result of tuition fees, a
figure supported by the National Union of
Students. Ministers who benefited from the old
grant system are now hypocritically denying our
generation of the same freedom. We as students
must fight to ensure that education is a right
not a privilege, ensuring we take our battle to
the ballot box whenever the General Election is
called.
You
can sign the online petition to scrap tuition
fees @ http://www.scraptuitionfees.com/.
Benjamin
Miskell
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