Fairness for Prospective University Students Petition (FPUSP)

Main Aim: To get the government to discuss an alternative to raising tuition fees to a maximum of £9,000 by instead charging ex-university students who didn’t have to pay for their tuition For many generations, universities have been heavily funded by the government. However, over the past few decades there have been various different methods of university funding, leading to a new system of tuition fees being introduced. In September 2006, the current system of tuition fees was brought in, which at present means that universities can charge up to a maximum of £3,290 per annum which students can take out a student loan for and only start repaying when their annual income passes £15,000. Due to the current economic situation we find our country in however, cuts have had to be made. This inevitably lead to funding for university students being cut, and the government’s solution to this appears to be raising the tuition fee cap to £6,000 or £9,000 if the university requests this. I believe that this is not the best solution as it is going to prevent many students from going to university and those who do will more than likely end up in a considerable amount of debt. When the new tuition fees legislation was brought in in 2004, two amendments were made, the second being that any move to raise the £3,000 limit after 2010 would require a vote from both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. This means that both the Houses of Parliament would have to agree to raise the limit, but this is probably going to be the case. The vote is expected to take place before Christmas 2010, so in order for this campaign to work, we need to work as quickly as we can. If you decide to sign this petition, you will be showing your support to the campaign to have a system introduced that would mean that all the people who went to university for free or for very little before 2006 will have to pay for some of their tuition. This will be a fairer system than raising our tuition fees to a maximum of £9,000 as it will mean that people who went to university for free give something back for the degree they may have benefitted from. It is unlikely that the maximum fee will stay the same, but a rise to around £5,000 would be fairer than a rise to £9,000, and with the money from past graduates who were fortunate to have their fees funded, I believe that it is a realistic approach to the situation. If we get 100,000 signatures on this petition, it will be discussed in Parliament, which will hopefully lead to a reform of the current proposals. Please sign the petition on the linked website and suggest this page to all your friends to get the word out. Thank You for your support.