UCU response to NUS alternative blueprint for higher education funding

'A blueprint for an alternative higher education funding system' from NUS explores ways of funding higher education without charging students tuition fees. In welcoming NUS's contribution, UCU reiterated its own policy that higher education should be free and funded from public taxation.

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'We have seen a concerted effort by some vice-chancellors to stage the debate around higher education funding in very narrow parameters focusing purely on the deregulation of top-up fees or simply raising the current limit. Like NUS, we believe that a much wider debate needs to happen. We will continue to press for access to higher education to be publicly funded because we believe it provides great benefits to both our country and to our civil society.
 
'The students of today are the doctors, nurses, social workers, engineers and architects of tomorrow. As a country we should be investing in them rather than seeking to ration access to higher education.'