Universities too important to be used as political football says union

Following speculation that Labour will cut tuition fees to £6,000 a year, but not guarantee to make up any loss in university income, UCU today said all political parties needed to honestly and clearly set out their funding plans for higher education.

UCU said it supported Universities UK's view that cutting fees without ensuring any income loss was compensated would be a disaster for students and staff as it would leave a £10bn funding gap over the course of the next parliament. 

UCU reiterated its view that access to higher education should be free and pointed to the recent decision by German lawmakers to get rid of tuition fees entirely as an example of a country prepared to prioritise its universities.

UCU believes that free access to higher education should be paid for through a hypothecated Business Education Tax (BET) on the largest companies' profits, collected as part of corporation tax. This would mean the next government reversing reductions in corporation tax which have given the UK among the lowest tax rates in the G20 for big business, while students pay the highest public university fees.

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'Political parties need to get serious about their plans for higher education and not use staff and students as electoral fodder or risk damaging the UK's global academic reputation.

'If we are to continue to thrive as a global academic power we need stable funding and if we are to ensure that everyone who would benefit from higher education is able to attend, we need to follow Germany's example and make tuition free. 

'We can continue to featherbed big business with a corporate tax regime which is more generous than even the United States, or we can change direction and ask the most profitable companies to pay fair tax in order to fund access to university for the next generation.'