Tag Archives: universities

Malcolm Wood

Opinion: No Need for a Graduate Tax

By Malcolm Wood | Fri 23rd July 2010 - 11:50 am

For a decade or so now governments have been firmly fixed on the idea that students should pay for their own education. So firmly fixed, in fact, that it’s easy to forget that until 1998 Higher Education was funded from general taxation and was, to the student, completely free.

It’s true that most taxpayers are in no further need of Higher Education. But that doesn’t mean they don’t benefit from its existence. Since most tax payers will one day be dependent on a pension (public or private) it’s in their interests that the next generation of wealth …

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Stephen Tall

Vince Cable set to propose graduate tax to replace tuition fees

By Stephen Tall | Wed 14th July 2010 - 8:05 pm

The BBC reports:

A graduate tax is to be proposed by the Business Secretary Vince Cable, in a keynote speech on the future funding of higher education. This would mean students in England would repay the costs of going to university through taxation once t hey began working. A review of tuition fees and student finance is due to report in the autumn.

Mr Cable, who has pledged to oppose raising fees, will suggest a graduate tax as an alternative system. This would mean students’ fees being paid by the government to universities – and graduates would then pay a higher

…

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The Voice

Kennedy urges coalition to mitigate impact of immigration cap on universities

By The Voice | Sat 10th July 2010 - 1:35 pm

The Press Association reports:

Former Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy has urged the Government to look at ways of “mitigating” the impact of an immigration cap on universities. Mr Kennedy, rector of Glasgow University, challenged universities minister David Willetts over the policy at question time.

“Given the Government’s policy on a cap on immigration, you will be aware Universities UK and many others right across the sector are worried about the impact this will have,” he said. “Ten per cent of university staff across the UK are non-EU nationals – 2,500 staff at the Scottish universities alone.

“What can you do with

…

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Mark Pack

The coalition agreement: transport & universities and further education

By Mark Pack | Sun 6th June 2010 - 5:50 pm

Welcome to the twentieth and last (phew!) in a series of posts going through the full coalition agreement section by section. You can read the full coalition document here.

Traditionally the transport sections of party manifestos contain commitments to various expensive, long-term public expenditure projects. In the current financial climate it is no surprise that the coalition agreement’s transport section is rather heavy on matters of regulation and bureaucracy and rather light on directly spending money to improve transport.

So we have a promise to “make Network Rail more accountable to its customers”, a commitment to “fair pricing for rail travel”, a …

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Helen Duffett

Daily View 2×2: 28 May 2010

By Helen Duffett | Fri 28th May 2010 - 7:00 am

As Big Ben chimes seven, it’s time to celebrate the day 151 years ago, that the famous bell was drawn on a carriage pulled by 16 horses from Whitechapel Bell Foundry to the Palace of Westminster.

To show that cuts in Westminster are nothing new, the cost of the bell was reduced by recycling the metal from the previous, faulty bell:

George Mears, then the master bellfounder and owner of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, undertook the casting. According to foundry records, Mears originally quoted a price of £2401 for casting the bell, but this was offset to the sum of £1829 by the metal he was able to reclaim from the first bell so that the actual invoice tendered, on 28th May 1858, was in the sum of £572.

If you’d like to know what Big Ben itself has to say today, you can follow it on Twitter: @big_ben_clock.

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here are two posts that caught my eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing them with us all.

2 Big Stories

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Posted in Daily View | Also tagged , , , , , , , and | 3 Comments
Matt Folker

Opinion: Liberal Youth needs to remain the party’s conscience

By Matt Folker | Thu 27th May 2010 - 11:20 am

This article is written by Matt Folker, who is a candidate for the chair of Liberal Youth. It is a response to this article which appeared yesterday.

Lib Dem Voice welcomes articles from any candidates in the Liberal Youth elections.

One of the things which believe makes Liberal Youth and the Liberal Democrats so special is that the Chair or leader of the party does not determine the organisations policies, indeed no one member does. The policies of the organisation are and should always be determined by conference, the beating democrat heart of our organisation. Therefore I would welcome any motion …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , and | 14 Comments
Richard Heinrich and Phil Jarvest

Opinion: Liberal Youth and the thorny question of higher education funding policy

By Richard Heinrich and Phil Jarvest | Wed 26th May 2010 - 11:13 am

The following article is by Richard Heinrich and Phil Jarvest, who are joint candidates for co-chair of Liberal Youth.

Lib Dem Voice welcomes articles from any candidates in the Liberal Youth elections.

The issue of higher education (HE) funding will very likely become a serious and highly contentious subject during the present Parliament.

We believe that for Liberal Youth – and indeed the Liberal Democrats – to play an active and useful role in this debate a full and wide-ranging internal discussion on the notion of a student contribution is needed. In our opinion Liberal Democrat policy has failed to adequately address …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 31 Comments
Mark Whiley

Opinion: Stand firm on tuition fees

By Mark Whiley | Fri 14th May 2010 - 1:50 pm

For every vote and every candidate up and down the country that signed the pledge on behalf of the National Union of Students, may I please put this to you – at the Emergency Conference on Sunday, oppose the provision in the coalition agreement which prevents us from voting on the outcome of the Lord Browne review on Higher Education Fees.

As a Party we have consistently been the only party to talk about fees, let alone come up with a costed policy for replacement of the present system where many graduates leave with thousands of pounds of debt. Students …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 28 Comments
Richard Flowers

Every single Lib Dem vote is a vote for change

By Richard Flowers | Sat 17th April 2010 - 3:14 pm

There are only EVER two stories in an election: CHANGE or MORE OF THE SAME.

The BIG difference that Nick Clegg’s acknowledged win in the Leader’s Debate has made is that many people now realise that while the Labservatives are more of the same old sleaze and spin, EVERY vote for a Liberal Democrat is a VOTE FOR CHANGE.

I’ll say that again:

EVERY SINGLE VOTE FOR A LIBERAL DEMOCRAT IS A VOTE FOR CHANGE.

This may just be the ONE election under our corrupt and broken electoral system where EVERY VOTE COUNTS.

Here’s why:

If you vote for Liberal Democrats you GET Liberal Democrats –

    These

…

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Stephen Tall

The Guardian’s approving verdict on the Lib Dems’ manifesto principles is correct … but for the wrong reasons

By Stephen Tall | Tue 12th January 2010 - 10:10 am

Nick Clegg will have enjoyed reading this morning’s Guardian editorial (Nick Clegg: Liberal parenting) over his breakfast porridge today. The paper commends Nick for yesterday’s launch of the principles which will underpin the Lib Dems’ election manifesto.

At the same time it betrays the Guardian’s usual unawareness of the party’s democratic decision-making principles. According to the Grauniad, Nick “ordered his party to drop some of its favourite policies”, issuing “instructions” in order to transform the Lib Dem manifesto from “a third-party wishlist” into “a credible agenda for directing a government”.

Hmmm, not so much.

In fact, all that …

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Philip Young

What the papers say…

By Philip Young | Sat 26th December 2009 - 3:43 pm

Civil  servants are as bad as bankers … The Telegraph trumpets Gladstone’s anniversary … Tories support Labour’s school Sats Tests … Another dodgy Tory donor exposed … Labour split on voting reform … Lords skim expenses cream … BBC to make film on Thorpe tragedy … what Chris Huhne thinks of Prince Charles … Unions sit on money for Labour … look at who says Hauge is Vauge …and the only thing the final polls of the year can agree upon is that Liberal Democrat support is holding up

Now Civil Servants join bankers in ludicrous bonuses – Daily Mail,, 24.12.09

…

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The Voice

Mandelson forcing universities to offer less choice and lower standards, says Stephen Williams

By The Voice | Thu 24th December 2009 - 5:20 pm

As early Christmas presents go, Lord (Peter) Mandelson’s announcement of swingeing cuts to university budgets lacked something of the festive spirit – the BBC reports:

The government is to cut university funding in England by a total of £398m for 2010-11 compared with this year, Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said. In a letter to the Higher Education Funding Council For England (Hefce), he also asks universities to protect quality and access to higher education. His letter confirms efficiency savings of £180m and £83m – and makes a further £135m budget reduction.

Liberal Democrat Shadow Universities Secretary, Stephen Williams, is none too …

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Danny Alexander MP

Danny Alexander writes … Campaigning on Our Manifesto

By Danny Alexander MP | Tue 22nd December 2009 - 11:50 am

On Friday, Nick emailed all members to outline our position on the abolition of tuition fees. It was great to see our position, agreed by both the Federal Policy Committee and the Parliamentary Party, broadly welcomed on LDV and elsewhere.

Saddling students with huge debts as they leave universities, particularly at a time when many are failing to find jobs through no fault of their own, is clearly wrong. And the prospect of such debts putting talented young people off going to university is equally wrong. That is why our plan to scrap tuition fees over 6 years from the election will be one of a very small number of core commitments in our manifesto.

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Posted in General Election and Op-eds | Also tagged , , , and | 9 Comments
Mark Pack

Party’s policy committee agrees to axe tuition fees

By Mark Pack | Fri 18th December 2009 - 2:33 pm

From an email from Nick Clegg:

This week the Party’s federal policy committee agreed a way to deliver one of our most important policies, the scrapping of unfair tuition fees. We’ve developed a plan to phase out tuition fees over the course of the next six years, to ensure this vital policy is affordable even at this time of economic crisis.

Labour and the Conservatives refuse to address the issue of fees and there is a real danger that both of them would lift the cap on fees which could mean even more debt for students when they leave university. We think

…

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Posted in News and Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged , , and | 23 Comments
Stephen Tall

Do university tuition fees deter the poorest?

By Stephen Tall | Thu 15th October 2009 - 7:20 pm

The issue of tuition fees exploded into the Lib Dem conference in Bournemouth, when Nick Clegg appeared to suggest he was rowing-back on the party’s long-established commitment to abolish them.

I’ll state clearly my position: I support tuition fees, and believe they are the only possible way of funding world-class higher education for UK students. As and when extra public money is available, I believe it would be much better invested in early years and adult education programmes if we are serious about combating the real causes of social inequality. I am equally clear that I’m in a small minority in the party, and that bulk of opinion is with our existing policy.

I noticed this article in today’s Independent, Universities finally open their doors to the poor. This shows that, over the past decade – and therefore since the introduction of tuition fees, and then top-up fees – the proportion of young adults reaching university from the poorest backgrounds has increased significantly:

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 22 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV post-conference members’ survey (2): ‘savage’ cuts, tuition fees, ‘mansion tax’ and the leadership

By Stephen Tall | Wed 7th October 2009 - 6:35 pm

Over the weekend, Lib Dem Voice invited the members of our private forum (open to all Lib Dem members) inviting them to take part in a survey, conducted via Liberty Research, asking a number of questions about the party and the current state of British politics. Many thanks to the 200+ of you who completed it; we’re publishing the results on LDV over the next few days. You can catch up on the results of all our exclusive LDV members’ surveys by clicking here.

First up, LDV asked: In a media interview before the party conference, Nick Clegg spoke of the need for the Lib Dems to be “quite bold, or even savage, on current spending”. Do you agree with Nick’s assessment?

Here’s what you told us:

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Tim Leunig

Opinion: MPs have the power – so how do we involve the members?

By Tim Leunig | Fri 25th September 2009 - 10:20 am

It is 1946, and Labour have just won a landslide under Clement Attlee. Harold Laski, head of Labour’s National Executive Committee, tells Attlee that he must not sign a peace treaty at Potsdam, because it is the NEC, not Attlee or the parliamentary party, which is the sovereign body of the Labour Party. Attlee replied that

You have no right whatever to speak on behalf of the Government. Foreign affairs are in the capable hands of Ernest Bevin . … a period of silence on your part would be welcome.”

Now imagine the Liberal Democrats win the 2010 election. For financial – or other – reasons the party leadership decide to defer or abolish our pledge to abolish tuition fees.

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Posted in Op-eds and Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged , , , , and | 19 Comments
Alex Foster

#ldconf podcast: Voxpops (including @katygordon)

By Alex Foster | Tue 22nd September 2009 - 4:30 pm

We asked delegates if their constituency was ready for the General election; if Nick Clegg was right on tuition fees; how a mansion tax would go down in their area; and how they were campaigning online.

Answering our questions were Tom Holvey and Chris Wiggin, from York, Katy Gordon for Glasgow North, Alan Bullion from Tunbridge Wells / Sevenoaks and Brendan D’Cruz from St Albans.

Posted in Conference, Online politics and Podcasts | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , and | Leave a comment

Opinion: A legacy of mediocrity

By Rich Wilson | Fri 11th September 2009 - 9:45 am

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has just published a report saying the way to combat recession is to up the number of university places. I disagree.

The problem is that while we have a culture where there’s a course for everyone, we have a degree for everyone – smart or stupid, talented or talentless. This has led to a system where only two grades matter – First or Fail. A First sets you out from the majority of candidates for employment, who leave with 2:1s, 2:2s or thirds; a fail means you’re back to square one. Anything in between is simply a blur of the average, and companies have no desire for the average.

But surely a degree should mean something? A degree should mean that someone is clever, whatever the grade. However, with degrees filled up with students who got EEE at A-level, it naturally devalues the system.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 22 Comments
Stephen Tall

How much do national University standards matter?

By Stephen Tall | Mon 3rd August 2009 - 7:10 pm

The BBC reports:

Universities in England are failing to safeguard degree standards, according to a damning report from MPs. The current system for ensuring quality is “out of date and should be replaced”, the Commons universities select committee concluded. “… “We are extremely concerned that inconsistency in standards is rife and there is a reluctance to address this issue,” said Mr Willis, chair of the Commons Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee.

Lib Dem blogger ‘Costigan Quist’ is sanguine:

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Posted in News | Also tagged | 16 Comments
The Voice

Willis challenges Mandelson over student places funding squeeze

By The Voice | Fri 19th June 2009 - 6:58 pm

The Telegraph reports:

Students are facing a desperate scramble to get into university amid warnings of a further squeeze on places. … On Wednesday night, Phil Willis, the committee’s Liberal Democrat chairman, wrote to Lord Mandelson to ask how he would meet the huge demand for higher education triggered by the recession. It represents Lord Mandelson’s first test since taking over the new Department for Business, Innovation and Skills in the Cabinet reshuffle.

Student leaders have already warned of looming chaos as thousands of teenagers leave school and college without university places or employment. By April this year, almost 525,000

…

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Alix Mortimer

Conference: Higher education paper

By Alix Mortimer | Sat 7th March 2009 - 12:01 pm

Breaking news! The Lib Dem Voice cupboard has a WINDOW! Yes, it’s a slightly unnerving black smoked glass internal window which reflects us as well as revealing the outside world, but it’s a window!

I missed Simon Hughes’ speech this morning, which is a shame as I am extremely hopeful about his capacity to advance the environmental agenda – we’ll bring you that video as soon as we’ve established that it exists.

Listening now to the motion on the Investing in Talent, Building the Economy paper (Adult, Further and Higher Education policy paper).

I’ve missed the movement from Stephen Williams, and come …

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Joe Taylor

Opinion: We must fight the Tories’ plans to privatise the education system

By Joe Taylor | Tue 10th February 2009 - 4:40 pm

I couldn’t help but to raise an eyebrow at the Telegraph’s recent front page splash, in which David Cameron unveiled his education plan for the future: “a new generation of comprehensive schools.”

Say what? Has he at last morphed into Tony Blair, grin and all? Well, no. The truth behind the headline (as usual with the Tories) is more sinister – and a glimpse of this truth could be found in the Telegraph’s leader on the story. It says:

Charities, private companies and parents’ groups will also be allowed to set up schools – competing with existing primaries

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , , , and | 43 Comments

Opinion: Tuition fees are not a panacea

By Alex Church | Fri 9th January 2009 - 11:50 am

Those of us who campaign in student-heavy seats can breathe a sigh of relief; the party is keeping its commitment to scrap tuition fees. This will spare us the challenge of having to explain a new and in all probability less snappy policy to students. I am, however, still concerned. I have heard too many activists talking as if tuition fees are a panacea for winning the student vote. That is far from being the case.

Students are a key part of the Liberal Democrat coalition. Their votes have helped us to win seats like Cambridge, Leeds North West and Cardiff …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 10 Comments
The Voice

Key Lib Dem policy committee votes to keep party’s pledge to scrap student tuition fees

By The Voice | Wed 7th January 2009 - 4:03 pm

Antony Hook has the story over at his blog:

Last night the Federal Policy Committee voted 14 to 5 to keep our policy to scrap university tuition fees.

Posted in News | Also tagged , , , and | 44 Comments
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