The mirage of self-finance in UK higher education; or how to keep non-elites out

By MSc student Sociology, Leonor Prata Castelo Given recent events, namely the student march against the UK Government’s cut in maintenance grants and cuts in education, and a consultation paper presented by the Conservative Party government about Higher Education that was published two days late, the conversation about UK university fees and student maintenance has taken centre stage. The proposed government plan would, among other things, implement a ‘teaching excellence framework’ that would classify universities’ performances and according to this rating, allow them, or not, to uncap their fees. Meanwhile, the Labour party has opposed these measures, as shown by the University spokesman Gordon Marsden’s comment about this green paper -stating it “would create a ‘two-tier system'” (BBC)- and John MacDonald’s speech at the student march. After the Occupy Movement’s traction last year, the Labour leadership has supported at least some of these claims, and the new leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has announced plans to scrap university fees – following the suit of other EU countries such as Germany, the other main regional economic power.