International News

Letter from London Stormy top-up fees debate It is amazing how quickly subjects which dominate the British press for a time, suddenly disappear from the front pages of newspapers. A case in point is the stormy ‘top-up’ fees for university students debate which almost brought down the Tony Blair government. The objectives of the Bill as enunciated by education secretary Charles Clarke are to place Britain’s somewhat down-at-heel varsities on a sound financial footing; to give institutions the freedom and resources to compete with the best universities around the world, and to make university education accessible to all regardless of income. Currently tuition fees payable to attend any university in the UK are £1,125 (Rs.92,250) per year. The introduction of top-up fees (in other words topping up the mandatory £1,125 fees they already receive) means university managements will be free to levy any fee between this price point upto a maximum of £3,000. The general expectation is that top rung institutions will demand the highest amount permitted by the government. Despite the narrowness of the government majority, there’s general agreement that British universities have suffered from many years of under-funding, even as student numbers have increased dramatically following a government commitment to facilitating 50 percent of young people to pursue higher education. The percentage of students of university age has risen to 43 even as investment in higher education has continued to fall. Therefore even those resolutely set against the idea of top-up fees agree that supplementary funding has to be found from somewhere. Inevitably given its working class traditions, the Labour government has made provision for means testing students. Under the new system due to come into force in 2006, students from less well-off families will receive grants of £1,500 (Rs.1.20 lakh) for living expenses. Simultaneously the government is encouraging universities to offer bursaries so that students from poor backgrounds could effectively pay nothing, even for courses priced at the maximum £3,000 (Rs.2.46 lakh). However all students will have to pay back their fees after graduation though under the new system repayments will begin once they earn over £15,000 (Rs.12.30 lakh) per year, rather than the £10,000 (Rs.8.20 lakh) currently, and repayment instalments are directly linked to income. Any unpaid debts will be written off after 25 years. As is often the case in Britain, middle class families which are neither poor enough to qualify for assistance, nor wealthy enough to be able to pay up without a struggle, will be worst hit. Meanwhile there is considerable speculation about which universities will charge full permissible fees. Critics fear this will result in a two-tier university system, with poorer students more likely to opt for less popular universities charging lower fees. Thus far little reference has been made to the impact of the bill on international students. In the long term they will presumably have to pay far higher fees to maintain the gap between themselves and domestic students. At the moment international students pay between £7,000-10,000 (Rs.5.47-8.20 lakh) by way of tuition…