28 June 2005

Welsh lecturers welcome rejection of top-up fees - but warn of continued underfunding

Welsh lecturers welcome rejection of top-up fees - but warn of continued underfunding

NATFHE – the union representing lecturers at new universities and FE colleges in Wales - has welcomed the Welsh Assembly Government's decision to not charge top-up fees to Welsh domiciled students who study at Welsh Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). But the union has warned that the funding gap compared to English HEIs, identified by the Rees Review, must be fully filled by compensatory additional funding from the Assembly government.

The union also welcomed the Assembly's decision to introduce a national bursary scheme for students, rather than a system of differing bursaries, and its commitment to undertake further work on funding and support for part-time students in Wales.

Margaret Phelan, regional official for NATFHE Wales, said:

"NATFHE welcomes the principle of the Assembly's decision to reject the top-up fee option in Wales. Top-ups help richer institutions at the expense of poorer ones, and deter many poorer people from studying, as we fully expect to see in England. However, the Assembly government must make absolutely sure that Welsh institutions are properly funded, and we want to see firm guarantees and transparent funding which delivers this. Welsh HE must be able to attract and retain top research staff and other academic talent.

"While we are pleased to see that fees will not increase above £1,200 for Welsh students - we regret that any student should pay fees and we oppose the principle of differentiation by student origin.

"If there must be fees, we strongly support a national bursary system and congratulate the Assembly government on this. An institution-based system would enable richer institutions to out-compete poorer ones which most poorer students attend. This would also further concentrate resources in fewer institutions and damage overall higher education provision in Wales.

"The Welsh formula is inevitably inequitable and imperfect but the overall responsibility for this lies in Westminster. The funding of all UK higher education is poorly organised and still inadequate. As this becomes more obvious, it must be in some doubt whether the current Westminster parliament, with its smaller Labour majority, would still vote for top-up fees."

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