Dean Young, Liverpool Socialist Students
Student maintenance loans will only rise by 2.8% for the 2023-24 academic year, rather than in line with RPI inflation, measured as 14% in November 2022. Many students will be wondering if they can afford to attend or continue going to university. This decision will cost students up to £1,523 per year, when the education system and funding model is already in crisis.
There are many problems within education. Underfunding and marketisation mean we are already seeing course closures, and the collapse of individual universities is posed. During the pandemic, no help was offered to students, and we were forced to pay tuition fees for remote, online learning. Tuition fees, introduced under New Labour and subsequently tripled by the Con-Dem government in 2010, come to a whopping £9,250 a year. And on top of this the elite Russell Group universities have demanded the cap for domestic students is raised.
Maintenance grants? They have been replaced by loans. The average debt of an undergraduate student, measured as £45,800 in December 2022, is subject to an annual interest rate based on RPI, currently capped at 6.5%. This may increase if the cap is lifted in February.
This paints a bleak picture for students amidst a cost-of-living crisis. So, what is to be done? 22 Labour student societies have written a sternly worded letter demanding an end to marketisation. Is this enough? I don’t believe so. What is needed is a new mass movement capable of representing students and fighting for free education. Socialist Students is fighting to build that movement.
We also need a new mass workers’ party, one which represents the interests of the working class rather than the capitalists.
With the announcement of 18 days of strike action by the University and Colleges Union (UCU), we can see how striking workers are giving a lead. In Liverpool Socialist Students we have taken the approach of seeking a united front of all student groups to support our UCU members in struggle, and to continue building a fighting student movement.
