One of the really big policy areas that Labour has yet to resolve before the General Election is how it can lower the cap on tuition fees to £6,000. University Vice-Chancellors have been in talks with the party for a very long time, and have been urging Ed Balls and Ed Miliband to get on with making a decision about their future funding arrangements.
One of the things delaying this decision is that there isn’t really enough money to get the cap down to £6,000 for all degrees. A couple of the papers have suggested in the past few days that the party may only lower the cap for technical degrees – which are cheaper for the taxpayer. But I’ve also heard from those closely connected to the policy development process that the party has been considering limiting the £6,000 cap to STEM subjects, given science, technology, engineering and maths provide the skills the future economy will need. This would trigger quite a strong debate about the value of arts subjects, if nothing else. But then again technical degrees are mostly in STEM areas, and so limiting the cap to them might send the same message about the importance of these subjects without including so many degrees in a lower fee regime.
Whatever the party eventually comes up with in terms of a settlement for university fees and funding, those involved are insistent that there is no hollowing-out of the other demands on the budget that funds universities but also pays for apprenticeships, science and skills and so on, given the importance Ed Miliband has attached to those areas too. But this does mean there are some very expensive decisions ahead for Labour.
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