We strongly object to David Willetts' utterances with regard to a new scheme to fund poor students’ first and maybe even second year at university as patronising and deceptive. The scheme would purportedly bring with it the state paying one year's fees of any student eligible for free school meals who is accepted for a place at university. On top of that, universities charging more than £6,000 a year in fees would be required to fund a further year's tuition for these students.
However, the funding for this scheme would come from the £150m National Scholarship Programme, which is money already set aside for education. There will be no additional funds made available by the government for education – instead money will just be re-distributed. This might be acceptable if it was at least a top-down re-distribution, yet it is particularly poor students who are targeted by the scholarship programmes. Thus, the scheme amounts to giving students on one side what has been taken away from them on the other side. The exact amount of money, which will be used to cover poor students’ tuition fees, will be withdrawn from the scholarship programmes. For poor students, thus, the balance breaks even.
Against this backdrop, the scheme presented by Willetts in order to make rising tuition fees palatable appears to us just as another attempt of window-dressing. We are disgusted and appalled in view of the government’s audacity to force through their devastating reforms for the education and public sector, underscored by comments such as “[t]here is absolutely no reason why students that are worried should have any genuine concerns about the proposals” (David Willetts).[1] Such statements will not quiet us down – on the contrary, they will fuel our determination to fight.
[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11920628
Monday 6 December 2010
Department of Anthropology Support
Statement in Support of LSE Student Occupation
The Anthropology Dept supports the LSE student occupation and the national campaigns against raising the cap on fees, cutting teaching budgets for humanities and social sciences, and getting rid of the Education Maintenance Allowance.
The coalition government's attack on access to education for all, and the withdrawal of support for an internationally respected sector at precisely the time when other countries are increasing that support, is unacceptable. The impact of the proposed HE and other public sector cuts will not be felt equally by everyone. Less well off people and certain minorities are thus less likely to be able to pay back loans and are less likely to take 'risks' with their education. Speaking as a department that draws 78% of its undergraduates from state schools, this is not the elitist future we want for young people in the UK.
Raising the price of education at the same time as freezing public sector salaries and slashing benefits reinforces inequality in various ways. We feel concerned that few will be encouraged to go to university if tough decisions about paying fees have to be made by families already struggling to make ends meet.
For these reasons, and many more, the Anthropology Dept supports the occupation, NUS and UCU protests against raising fees and cutting public sector budgets.
Supported by the following members of the Anthropology Dept, December 6th, 2010 (with acknowledgements to the Gender Institute for inspiration and for some of the wording):
Deborah James, Martha Mundy, Fenella Cannell, Mukulika Banerjee, Laura Bear, Stephan Feuchtwang, Michael Scott, Yanina Hinrichsen, Harry Walker, Heonik Kwon, Andrew Sanchez, Thomas Grisaffi,Mathijs Pelkmans
The Anthropology Dept supports the LSE student occupation and the national campaigns against raising the cap on fees, cutting teaching budgets for humanities and social sciences, and getting rid of the Education Maintenance Allowance.
The coalition government's attack on access to education for all, and the withdrawal of support for an internationally respected sector at precisely the time when other countries are increasing that support, is unacceptable. The impact of the proposed HE and other public sector cuts will not be felt equally by everyone. Less well off people and certain minorities are thus less likely to be able to pay back loans and are less likely to take 'risks' with their education. Speaking as a department that draws 78% of its undergraduates from state schools, this is not the elitist future we want for young people in the UK.
Raising the price of education at the same time as freezing public sector salaries and slashing benefits reinforces inequality in various ways. We feel concerned that few will be encouraged to go to university if tough decisions about paying fees have to be made by families already struggling to make ends meet.
For these reasons, and many more, the Anthropology Dept supports the occupation, NUS and UCU protests against raising fees and cutting public sector budgets.
Supported by the following members of the Anthropology Dept, December 6th, 2010 (with acknowledgements to the Gender Institute for inspiration and for some of the wording):
Deborah James, Martha Mundy, Fenella Cannell, Mukulika Banerjee, Laura Bear, Stephan Feuchtwang, Michael Scott, Yanina Hinrichsen, Harry Walker, Heonik Kwon, Andrew Sanchez, Thomas Grisaffi,Mathijs Pelkmans
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