CymruX Intern and Guest Blogger, Iago ap Steffan writes:
It beggers belief that the Liberal Democrats not so long ago were accusing Plaid Cymru of failing students in regards to top-fees. They were out with their flyers around Aberystwyth, where I study, stating that Plaid was going against their word and introducing student fees. Now we all know that Plaid Cymru are still against tuition fees and believe that eduction should be free at point of need. The fees that have been introduced are for better off students, while getting rid of fees altogether for poorer students; in fact giving an extra £35million to the scheme.
What amazes me is the campaign against Plaid by the Lib Dems and insisting that they would never think about introducing top-up fees in universities. Well it very much surprised me that last weekend at the Liberal Democrat conference in Bournemouth there were talks of ending their policy on scrapping tuition fees. Now we all know that the Lib Dems are not going to be in a position where they lead a national government, but at least we know what their true plans are. Plaid's aim is clear, we oppose tuition fees and will carry on fighting this issue right through to the end.
Not only have the Lib Dems are starting to talk about tuition fees, we also have the CBI stating that students should be paying at least £5,000 a year, while taking out commercial loans instead of the Student Loan and also scrapping grants. This would mean that those who come from poorer backgrounds will be denied university education and many others will be scared of leaving university with even greater debt. What is really insulting is the fact that most of the people who represent the CBI and Liberal Democrats didn't have to pay for their university tuition. CymruX will carry on fighting against students paying this expensive tax.
2 comments:
everyone is against top up fees!! we would all like to rid top up fees nearly every single party wants to scrap them!!! But is it really possibble?? getting rid of top up fees would mean higher taxes for the poor!!!
We want dentistry to be free but some things have to be paid for (even a small fee) especially if the government aspire to have 50% of students going to university. I can never see free university places anymore the sheer quantity of students going to university would mean a lot of money would have to be found from somewhere!!! To get universities to be tuition fee free zones we need to reduce some student numbers! Their are more important things to be concerned about like 750,000 unemployed 16-25 year olds at the moment or the inadequacy of mental health provisions! Real issues that need to be tackled!
Fees are scaring me by the time I finish university I would have spent $50,000!! If the Westminster government perhaps did something similar to the scheme the assembly gave before 2010 where university students would have a one off grant of 1500 and students payed the rest maybe that would work!!
The CBI announcing students pay 5000 in fees is that government policy??
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