This AGM notes the government’s
proposals to introduce top-up fees, where universities will charge variable
fees of up to £3,000 per year. This AGM opposes this proposal as it will lead
to substantial increases in student debts, restrict access to many universities
and create an increasingly two-tier university system.
This AGM notes that top-up fees are the
latest proposal that transfers the cost of education onto students and their
families; and follows the abolition of grants and the introduction of loans and
fees in 1998.
This
AGM believes that funds do exist for higher education but that the government
has got its spending priorities wrong – choosing to spend billions, for
example, on war in Iraq. This AGM agrees that higher education should be
funded, as with other public services, through the more progressive system of
general taxation.
This
AGM further believes that the introduction of top-up fees is only the latest
instance of ‘New Labour’s Thatcherite policy of relying on regressive taxation,
direct or indirect, to finance public expenditure
This
AGM resolves to oppose shifting the burden of taxation from the well off to
those least able to bear it and support reintroduction of much higher rates of
tax for those living on well above average incomes and consequently to oppose
all university fees and support student grants at a level that will end debt;
and to support an increase in the public funding of universities to end their
funding crisis.