Tisi - Conservative & Labour Plans to Raise University Tuition Fees will Burden a Generation with Debt

10.18.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 21st Oct 2009

At the 2005 election Conservatives told students they would abolish tuition fees. Now they plan to double them.

Local Lib Dem Julian Tisi has warned that young people in Windsor will face a life in debt after the Conservatives suggested they will increase university tuition fees to £7,000 if they take power at the next general election, which has to be held by next June.

Unlike Labour and the Conservatives, the Lib Dems' members make their policies democratically at the party conference. They have consistently voted to abolish tuition fees.

That will see tuition fees for undergraduates more than double. Currently there is a cap of £3,300 in England and Wales.

In 1997 Labour said they were against tution fees, then they introduced them. In 2001 they were against "top up" fees, then they introduced them too.

Julian said after this announcement 'Many young people in Windsor have ambitions to go to University, the government claim that on average graduates earn more, but detailed analysis of earnings figures shows that whilst a minority of graduates do very well in later earnings, we are reaching the position where the majority will be worse off overall once they have paid for their education.'

www.liberalyouth.org

Julian continued, 'The nation benefits both economically and socially from being better educated. That's why I believe that University education should be free. Labour and Conservative plans will burden a generation of young people with an enormous debt. The Liberal Democrats are the only party committed to giving young people the best start by freeing them from beginning their working life thousands of pounds in debt.'

Both Labour and the Conservatives have broken their promises on tuition fees. Meanwhile the Liberal Democrats (the only truly democratic party of the three) have consistently voted at their conference to abolish tuition fees.

Local Lib Dems believe that the Tories tuition fee hike is another example of a Conservative Stealth Tax scheme.

Related Links:

Tuition fees timeline @ news.bbc.co.uk.

Read "Investing in Talent" the Liberal Democrats' Policy on Further & Higher Education.

Find out about Liberal Youth - the Youth Movement of the Liberal Democrats.

Read more about this story from the London Evening Standard.

Read more about this story from the Daily Mail.

Read more about this story from the Daily Telegraph.

Read more about this story and the Con / Lab pact on tution fees from the Times.

Read more about this story from the Time Higher Education Supplement.

Read more about this story from Student Direct.