NUS is a voluntary membership organisation comprising a confederation of affiliated local student representative organisations in colleges and universities throughout the United Kingdom. The organisation has nearly 750 constituent members—virtually every college and university in the UK—and represents the interests of around five million students. It provides research, representation, campaign work, training and expert advice for individual students and students' unions.

JUMPING THE GUN ON FEES?

  In an interview with The Sunday Times on 14 March 2006, Alan Johnson MP stated that "students will learn to love top-up fees" and suggested that attitudes will swing in favour of top up fees by 2010 when the cap is due to be reviewed.

  During the passage of the Higher Education Bill, Alan Johnson MP assured the House that the Government would appoint an independent commission, which would review the effect of top-up fees on the higher education system. In addition, the Government has frequently assured us that no decision on lifting the cap will be made until this independent commission has reported back to Parliament in 2009.

  Despite the evidence not yet being in, the Secretary of State seems to have pre-empted the findings of this independent commission, and decided that students will welcome top-up fees. In fact, recent evidence indicates that individuals considering university are being negatively influenced by the introduction of fees and the fear of debt:

—    February 2006. Figures from UCAS revealed that the number of people applying to university had fallen for the first time in six years. The figures showed an average 3.7% decrease in applications to English universities. Meanwhile, applications to Scottish and Welsh institutions—where they have not yet introduced top-up fees—have increased by 1.6% and 0.5% respectively.

—    June 2006. A national study commissioned by the Universities Marketing Forum showed that 48% of teenagers considering going to university said that they were "very likely" or "quite likely" not to go because they could not afford the cost of living. Of the 2,225 sixth-formers questioned, nearly half (47%) said that an inability to afford the fees was very or quite likely to put them off pursuing a degree.

—    June 2006. Target 10,000, an independent campaign group which aims to increase access to university, conducted a study based on a poll of state school students who had been predicted three B grades or above at A level. The study showed that of the 7,000 year 12 (lower sixth) students surveyed, 27% were less likely to go to university following the introduction of the £3,000 fees.

—    July 2006. In the Guardian's Grad Facts 2006 survey 34% of the final year undergraduates in the survey said they would not have gone into higher education with top-up fees as high as £3,000. It also suggested that low salary expectations, combined with the prospect of student loan repayments, mean most graduates fear they will be unable to buy a property within the first years after graduation, especially in London.

QUESTIONS

—    The Secretary of State recently suggested that "students will learn to love top-up fees." On what evidence did he base that statement? Emerging reports indicate that top-up fees are putting young people off going to university. Would that make the Secretary of State retract his statement?

—    Do the Secretary of State's comments about top-up fees indicate that lifting the cap in 2009-10 is inevitable? Will he assure the Committee that he will not pre-empt the findings of the independent commission, and that no decision will be taken on the cap until the commission has reported to Parliament?

July 2006