The NUS has asked me to help in their opposition to higher student fees, and that's certainly something I feel strongly about.
I benefited - like most of today's government - from free university tuition. Today the students I teach graduate with a pile of debt. It's so unfair of us in the older generation to make them start their working lives with such a handicap.
Abolishing student fees remains a central plank of our policy in the Liberal Democrats. The Government (and the Tories are no better) has to be given the message that any increase will cost them votes and seats.A recent YouGov poll commissioned by NUS revealed that 88% of the public does not think the review should even consider increasing fees, while a majority believes that it should look at alternatives. Last year, research by Opinionpanel showed that a political party’s position on tuition fees would affect how 79% of students would vote in a general election.
NUS President Wes Streeting said:
“The vast majority of the general public is against higher fees, and although this review has been set up to report after the general election, voters deserve to know where their MP stands on this highly emotive issue.
“The vast majority of the general public is against higher fees, and although this review has been set up to report after the general election, voters deserve to know where their MP stands on this highly emotive issue.
I am delighted that Roger is standing up for students and their families in Macclesfield by signing up to this pledge. He has demonstrated his determination to give every young person a fair chance to go to university.”
