Starmer tuition fee U-turn ‘deeply disappointing’, says UCU

Responding to Labour leader Keir Starmer’s U-turn on pledging to abolish student tuition fees, University and College Union general secretary Jo Grady said: 

'Keir Starmer repeatedly pledged to abolish the toxic system of tuition fees and in doing so was elected leader of the Labour party. It is deeply disappointing for him to now be reneging on that promise, a move which would condemn millions of future students to a life of debt. What we really need is a positive vision for higher education that puts staff and students first.

'The current, tuition fee reliant, model is broken. It has saddled students with decades of debt, turned universities from sites of learning into labyrinthine businesses obsessed with generating revenue and surpluses over all else, and led to staff pay and working conditions being degraded causing unprecedented industrial unrest.

'The country desperately needs a publicly funded higher education system.'