Open Letter to Mark Reckless MP on Tuition Fees

Medway Labour standing with UMSA students against tuition fee increases

The following open letter was posted today to Mark Reckless MP requesting he vote against the tuition fee increases.

Bob Marshall-Andrews QC, the former MP for Medway, put his constituents first and voted against policy that was against the interests of our community. He opposed the increase in tution fees under Labour and put his principle above his career.

The letter below requests that Mark puts his constituents first, including those in Grammar Schools who will be left a £27,000 legacy of debt because of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat plans.

The vote is due on Thursday 9th December.

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Dear Mark,

I am writing as a constituent, former student and tax payer who is extremely worried about future funding for higher education which will impact those from Secondary Modern, Grammar, Further Education and private schools and colleges. A whole generation of young people who are looking at the prospect of having to pay for a University which you personally, and my parents got for free.

It is now clear that the coalition government has decided to push ahead with the legislation on tuition fees, which is due to be discussed in the House on Thursday 9 December 2010. The Government is, in effect, proposing a vote to triple fees before Christmas, a vote to make them ‘progressive’ after Christmas, and a vote on legislation to deliver value for money for those fees much further down the line. This process lacks proper scrutiny or democratic accountability and should be resisted by MPs and Lords of all parties.

I would therefore ask you to vote against this measure in the interests of young people and their concerned families and like the former MP for Medway, Bob Marshall-Andrews, put principle first.

The former MP, Bob Marshall-Andrews QC rightly rebelled on the issue of tuition fees and put his constituents first. He realised that putting a cap on aspiration would harm students from all backgrounds, from the Rochester Girls Grammar school to Mid Kent College. This measure is an affront to aspiration and to the brightest of our students, as many of the leading Universities are likely to raise fees to the maximum level as a response to government legislation.

Bob Marshall-Andrews stood against the Labour Government and put his constituents before other interests. I request that you do the same in the interest of all our young people in Medway, who are now very worried about the prospect of eye-wateringly high levels of debt at the start of their careers. I am asking you to put the people of Rochester and Strood first and oppose a rise in tuition fees.

The main opposition party on Medway Council has already tried to resolve the Conservative administration to oppose the tuition fee increases. If this legislation is not opposed, it will leave an average student from the Maths Grammar School in Rochester a debt of £27,000 and a medical student from Strood Academy a debt of £50,000.

The students of tomorrow, like those who received their education for free, will on average go on to earn more over the course of their careers and as a result will pay higher income tax. The funding universities receive is not ‘dead weight’ but is a good, strong and stable investment that brings huge economic, as well as social and cultural, returns.

The government proposals take an extremely risky approach to funding the higher education sector, with a rapid move to an unconstrained market of universities in which students pick up the bill for almost the whole cost of teaching. They ignore the probability that with much higher fee levels, prospective students - especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds across Medway - will change their behaviour and make judgements primarily on price, cost, and debt.

There will be two votes on Thursday – one to raise the basic fee cap to £6,000, the other to allow for an additional higher fee cap at £9,000. Whatever your feelings about a rise in fees – which I must stress I oppose – there is no justification whatsoever for such an extreme rise in the fee cap as £9,000.

The argument that the proposals to increase the fee cap to £9,000 will actually save money and pay down the immediate public deficit is also in doubt. There is a great cost to the Government, who will have to borrow additional money to provide students with higher loans.

Indeed, The Higher Education Policy Institute's verdict is that the proposals will increase public expenditure through this parliament and into the next. And the Office for Budget Responsibility’s updated November forecast shows that the impact of the Government’s plans to increase fees to £9,000 would add £13 billion to public sector net debt by 2015-16, even after the massive education funding cuts have been taken into account. As such, the argument that these measures are a necessary response to the need to reduce public spending simply does not add up.

There is an alternative to the government proposal. Stand up for your constituents, oppose the bill and request that further options on funding be considered which seek to unite all those behind a consensus position which is fair, funded and equitable for all our residents.

Yours sincerely,

Tristan Osborne