Policy U-Turn Heralds Tuition Fee Hike

Tuition fees for university students in NI are to rise - despite an earlier report that said they should be frozen.

The NI Employment and Learning Minister Danny Kennedy has told the Assembly today that that a 'second round' report from the Institute of Director's Joanne Stuart's would be a key consideration for his department.

In an earlier report - also commissioned by his Department - Ms Stuart of the said fees should be frozen but has now overturned her own recommendation that fees should be kept at the current level.

The fees currently are about £3,000 per year, but Joanne Stuart has recommend they rise as high as £5,750.

The minister will launch a consultation on student finance next month and also said a rise in tuition fees is almost inevitable.

"I am extremely grateful to Joanne Stuart for her hard work and commitment in producing her original report and subsequent update.

"Joanne Stuart's update will be a key consideration for my Department, and will obviously inform the forthcoming public consultation document," said the Ulster Unionist Executive Minister.

He noted that the original report made a number of recommendations in relation to future higher education fees and funding.

However, she also explicitly indicated that the recommendations would need to be reviewed in light of the outcomes of Lord Browne's review in England once they were known, particularly if the recommendations of that review could impact on student flows between Northern Ireland and England.

To inform her update, Joanne Stuart was asked to consider the Browne Review and the outcome of the Comprehensive Spending Review.

The Minister said: "I am committed to developing a Northern Ireland solution to the student finance issue.

"We have the best higher education participation rates in the UK for those from socially disadvantaged backgrounds and it is important that access to higher education here continues to be based on the ability to learn, not the ability to pay.

"Higher education confers benefits and it is right that the beneficiaries should contribute towards the cost. However we also need to find the balance between the level of tuition fees and how much public finance should be given to the universities. This needs to be done within the context of the current financial and economic realities, particularly those that face my Department," he said this morning, noting that he intends to launch a public consultation document through which he will seek views on proposals for future student finance arrangements.

Last October, the first report into tuition fees in Northern Ireland recommended they stay at their present level and additionally recommended that more students in NI should receive help through maintenance grants.

The finding was contained in a report commissioned by the (former) Stormont Employment and Learning Minister Sir Reg Empey, and was said to fly in the face of a UK Government review of the way university courses are funded as it is recommending that the previous cap on charges be scrapped.

Former BP boss, Lord Browne said then that he wants the current limit on tuition fees increased from £3,290 to at least £7,000.

The initial Browne Review was tasked with making recommendations to the Westminster Government on the future of higher education funding and student finance for full and part-time undergraduate and postgraduate students in England.

Three months ago, Sir Reg said that he would consider the findings of both the Browne Review and the other, local report, the Stuart Review and said he would set up a group to consider the best way to fund university education in NI.

The latest Stuart report - just revealed - now appears to condemn local students to a huge hike in their university fees.

See: NI Uni Students Need Help - Not Fees

(BMcC/GK)