UNIVERSITY TUITION FEES - Simon Hughes

Regional Conference in the Autumn the delegates adopted the following motion on UNIVERSITY TUITION FEES proposed by Sam Boote

"Conference deplores the decision of the Business Secretary and of the Coalition Government to allow tuition fees to rise without limit and calls on the Deputy Prime Minister and his Liberal Democrat colleagues in the Cabinet to honour the pledge in the election manifesto of May 2010 to scrap unfair university tuition fees for all students taking their first degree including those studying part-time (saving them over £10,000 each) and immediately to scrap fees for final year students."

Sam was delegated to write to Nick Clegg, Vince Cable and Simon Hughes. After a very long delay, Sam received a written reply from Nick's office and a phone call from Tim Farron. Simon came to our spring regional conference in Corby and answered questions about tuition fees and also made some comments about the feedback from local parties and regional conferences to the leadership. Recently Sam received a letter from Simon (as below) which seems to reflect what he said to us in Corby.

Dear Sam

University tuition fees in England

You wrote to me some time ago about higher education and tuition fees. Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in replying to you. My office always receives a large number of entails and letters from constituents and non constituents alike and I try always to deaf first with those asking for help. But please excuse me - because this reply is much later than I would have liked.

Before the general election

Before the general election last year Liberal Democrats made a commitment that if we were elected we would phase out tuition fees within 6 years. Because of this 1 and all of my Liberal Democrat colleagues signed a pledge proposed by the National Union of Students to vote against any rise in fees and to work towards a fairer system of repayments.

The coalition agreement and higher education policy

Sadly for my colleagues and me, the Liberal Democrats did not win the general election Labour lost their majority and the Conservatives did not gain a majority either, The Conservatives were the largest party in seats and votes. Liberal Democrats had always made it clear that if there was a parliament with no overall majority, we would talk first to the largest party - and this we did. We then also talked to the Labour party. Both of these other parties were in favour of tuition fees or a similar graduate contribution. When in government Labour had introduced tuition fees and then increased them, The Conservative party leadership in opposition had also been supportive of tuition fees or a graduation contribution. (The policy of the National Union of Students was also in favour of a graduate contribution.) In the end it was clear that many people in the Labour party did not wish to enter into a coalition whereas the Conservatives clearly were willing to work together with us in the national interest. We negotiated the best deal we could - and with many key Liberal Democrat policies agreed.

The coalition agreement delivers on Liberal Democrat priorities in government for the first time, The end of the detention of children without trial, an end to income tax for hundreds of thousands of people on low incomes by the end of this parliament, and extra funding for school children from poorer backgrounds would not be happening without Liberal Democrats in government. As we now more forward I have made clear that we need to make real demonstrable progress on these commitments and on all other areas of the coalition agreement which came from the Liberal Democrat manifesto, making a change for the better to our environment, our civil liberties, our economy and our democracy.

Unfortunately it was never possible to persuade the Conservatives to abolish tuition fees - even over six years. The prospects of any such policy being implemented were therefore not only impossible given the parliamentary arithmetic but even more difficult still given the severe economic difficulties nationally and internationally just before, during and after the general election.

The deal eventually agreed on this subject between Liberal Democrats and Conservatives set out good, positive and progressive principles but deferred any decision until Lord Browne's report, commissioned by the ra5t Labour government, was published later in the year, Anticipating that Lord Browne's recommendations. and the government response, might not be able to be consistent with Liberal Democrat policy or the NUS pledge, special arrangements were negotiated to allow Liberal Democrats to withhold their support from any policy eventually proposed by the government i.e., to abstain.

My decision and my votes

Because of tie highly controversial nature of Lord Browne's report and the government's prop-awls I made every effort to consult constituents, students who study and live in my constituency, future students, parents and party members before I came to my decision on how to vote on these issues, I also held several meetings publicly and privately in my constituency to do this In addition I also received many letters and emails on this subject,

I considered all of the arguments made to me, and did not come to a final decision on whether to abstain or vote against the policy until the afternoon of the vote. I was always clear that I could not and would not vote in favour of any increase in fees. In the end, I came to the conclusion, that as Deputy Leader of the party in the House of Commons, for me to vote both against my party leader and all of my Liberal Democrat ministerial colleagues would have undermined both the leadership of the party and the coalition agreement, both of which I continue to support strongly. Because of this I decided to register my opposition to an increase in fees by an abstention from the vote, as permitted by the coalition agreement.

The new policy on tuition fees

One of the reasons for my long standing opposition to tuition fees has been the concern that people from the community which I represent would not be put off going to the best universities as a result of fees. The package produced by the government has done much to address this. Nobody will have to pay anything upfront and will not start to make repayments until they earn above £21,000. The repayment rate has been set so that no graduate in the future will pay more than they do each month under the current system; part-time students have been taken out of paying upfront fees altogether and a scholarship fund has been set up to help those from the poorest backgrounds.

The challenge to make sure that nobody will be put off from going to university

I am clear that the challenge now is to make sure that everybody, particularly young people, fully understand all the financial implications of the proposals and are not put off from going to university. I am also committed to making sure that universities and further education colleges are as accessible as possible to people from all backgrounds. For this reason I was pleased to accept the post of Advocate for Access to Education when offered by the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister shortly before Christmas.

In my role this year as Advocate for Access to Education, I am working with young people to make sure that we have the best system of educational advice information and support in place. It is essential that this system is designed to benefit all potential students and to ensure that disadvantaged young people increasingly gain access to further and higher education, I have already met with many key people and organisations, argued for universities to reflect better our society's state/private school balance in their intake, and started working on a national public information campaign to inform young people across the country about the opportunities available to them in education or training after the age of 16,

What am I doing now and in the months ahead?

I am now busy regularly giving advice to the government to try to make sure that, as far as the law permits, every effort is made to work with colleges and universities to implement an effective scholarship scheme and to come up with good alternative plans to support students in further education who now and in recent years received an education maintenance allowance (EMA).

I have already made some good progress. As a result of the comprehensive spending review the government had decided to end EMA and allocate £75m to a replacement scheme. After personally consulting with students from around the country I was able to make the case to the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister for a much more generous scheme.

As a result of this on 28 March Michael Gore MP, the Secretary of State for Education, announced that the government had allocated a further £'I05 million each year for a replacement to EM'A and that regular EMA payments would be continued to all students who were guaranteed that will receive it, and all those currently in their first year who are now receiving the top rate of EMA The new scheme will also guarantee a higher payment to all those from the most vulnerable backgrounds such as those students in care or leaving care.

I am also intensively to talking to schools, sixth form colleges and university students about the best ways of ensuring good Careers information, advice and guidance from the end of primary school and onwards and particularly from year 9. Many young people I talk to in Southwark and around the country are actively engaged in helping me to this work. If you are interested in keeping in touch and feeding in further ideas please look at my new website on these issues. This can be found at http://simonhughes-independent.gov.uk. The remit of my specific job on this issue is for six months until the end of June. I also refer you to my appointment letter and remit, which appear on the website, if you are interested.

Throughout all my conversations on this issue I have been impressed with the many helpful and constructive suggestions which have been made to me. Some of these suggestions, such as up rating the threshold when graduates start to pay back their loans and lowering the qualification for part time students s0 that even more part time students will not be liable for up-front fees, have already been taken on by the government. I hope that as we move forward, we can continue this dialogue so that you can help me to improve further the package of reforms to higher education,

Thank you once again for contacting me on this subject. I hope that my reply has addressed at least some of your concerns, If you have any further questions, or if can be of any additional assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me again.

Yours sincerely

Simon Hughes