Crisis for British Students as ConDem Regime Makes Foreign Aid Financial Priority
University tuition fees are set to rise across the board to £9,000 per year, directly contrary to earlier promises from Universities Minister David Willetts that this would only happen in “exceptional cases.”
The universities budget cut of 40 percent, announced in October last year by Chancellor George Osborne, saw funding reduced from £7.1 billion to £4.2 billion.The foreign aid budget was increased at the same time from £9 billion to £12.1 billion, and spending on the war in Afghanistan continued to rise to well over £4 billion per year.
In effect, this means that the Tory and Lib-Dem coalition has spent three times as much on foreign aid and wars than on educating British kids.
When the university budget cuts were announced, the government said that the maximum fee of £9,000 per year would only apply in "exceptional circumstances" where universities meet "much tougher conditions on widening participation and fair access".
Now however, it has emerged that the vast majority of universities intend to charge the full £9,000 a year tuition fee.
Oxford and Cambridge universities were the first to announce their intention to charge the maximum £9,000 fee. According to student newspaper sources, others are set to shortly follow their lead.
Currently, maximum fees in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are set at £3,290 per annum. In Scotland, university is free to Scottish and EU students, and costs £1,820 per year for English, Welsh students.
The public is becoming increasingly uneasy with the extent of the budget cuts, particularly given the fact that the coalition government seems to put foreign aid, war and EU membership at a higher priority than education in Britain.
According to a new opinion poll conducted by ComRes poll, 69 percent of voters thought that they would be worse off personally as a result of the coalition's measures and a similar number thought the budget cuts were “unfair.”
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