Adam Gillman, Reading Socialist Party
Every week there is a drip feed of hints that Labour’s first budget, coming up on 30 October, will include attacks on students. This could include increasing tuition fees with inflation which could lead to them hitting £10,500 within the next five years. Students are already facing high bills, rents and fees, with most students paying extortionate rents for a small dorm room that isn’t fully maintained. They will leave university with an even bigger mountain of debt.
The University and Colleges Union (UCU), which represents university staff, says that we could fund universities with a 4.3% increase in corporation tax would raise £17 billion. This could be used as an education levy to fund universities and end its tuition fee model.
This would be a great step forward. However, why stop there? We need to end the marketisation of universities – take them back and make them fully publicly funded by taking the wealth of the super-rich!
It’s not just a question of funding, why should we allow our universities to be run into the ground by the university bosses? They should be democratically controlled by students and staff.
Socialist Students will fight for free education against any attempts to make students pay more. We fight for maintenance grants students can actually live on. And a democratically run education system for all.
