Students End Stage Sit-In Over Fees

A group of students protesting against Scotland's leading arts academy's decision to charge fees of £9,000 to students from England, Wales and Northern Ireland ended their sit-in this afternoon.









A spokeswoman for the group said it was "neither practical nor effective" to stay in the foyer of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland overnight.

Around 30 students started occupying the building at around 11.30 this morning.

They said the protest was part of a rolling programme of "wildcat" occupations over Scottish universities' plans to charge fees to students from the rest of the UK (RUK).

The RCS, which recently changed its name from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, is to charge students from elsewhere in the UK £36,000 for four-year degree courses and £27,000 for three-year courses from 2012/13.

The Glasgow-based institution has said the charge reflects the exceptionally high cost of programme delivery in conservatoires, which substantially exceeds the £9,000 fee.

The sit-in at the conservatoire ended shortly after 3pm.

A spokeswoman for the protesters said: "By facilitating fee increases for RUK students the RCS is setting a dangerous precedent in Scotland.

"Despite promises from the SNP Government that Scottish students will not pay fees, we believe that the huge disparity in fees between Scottish and RUK students will become intolerable and will inevitably result in fees for all students.

"Whatever tokenistic measures are introduced, a financial market in education will always result in discrimination against those unable to afford fees, whatever the level.

"Education is a right, and must be free, as it was for generations.

"The Conservatoire's Student Union has abandoned its responsibilities by backing the decision by management."

Robert Gordon University (RGU) in Aberdeen and the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) also made announcements on fees for RUK students today.

RGU adopted a "tiered approach", with three bands of undergraduate fees.

Business, management and social science courses will cost £5,000 a year, fees for art and design, architecture and built environment, computing, engineering, health and science courses will be set at £6,750 a year, while the master of pharmacy course will be the most expensive at £8,500 a year.

The Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) said fees for RUK students would be £27,000 for a four-year degree, with fees set at £6,750 a year.

The announcements came after St Andrews and Edinburgh universities set fees at the maximum level of £9,000 per year for students from the rest of the UK, meaning that a four-year honours degree at the universities will cost £36,000.

Aberdeen and Heriot-Watt universities also announced £9,000 yearly fees, although both have capped the cost of a degree at £27,000.

Glasgow School of Art also capped fees at £27,000 for a four-year course.

Currently, no full-time undergraduates domiciled in Scotland pay tuition fees at Scottish universities.

The conservatoire said the fee its board of governors has agreed is exactly the same as that charged by comparable conservatoires in England which offer four-year undergraduate degree courses in music and three-year undergraduate degree courses in drama and dance.

The conservatoire, whose alumni include James McAvoy, Robert Carlyle, Billy Boyd and Tom Conti, already operates an extensive scholarship programme.

It said that from 2012/13 it will introduce additional scholarships, which will be means-tested, for new undergraduate students from the rest of the UK to partly offset the introduction of increased tuition fees for that group of students.

Scholarships of £3,000 a year will be available for students from a household whose income is less than £25,000 per annum.

The RCS was not immediately available for comment.

David Cameron's Fury Over Bullingdon Club Riot Jibe

David Cameron was left fuming yesterday after his rowdy student days were likened to last month’s riots.













The PM, who was in Oxford University’s infamous Bullingdon Club, was asked if there were similarities between being a member of “a youthful gang that engages in violent behaviour” and the rampaging mobs who brought anarchy to our streets.

He snapped “we all do stupid things when we are young” – despite previously slamming the rioters as proof Britain had a “sick society”.

BBC Radio 4’s Today programme presenter Evan Davis, who also hosts TV’s Dragon Den, persisted asking: “Did you witness stuff as a member of that club... people throwing things through windows, smashing up restaurants?”

Mr Cameron replied: “No I didn’t and, as I say, we all do stupid things. But what we saw during the riots was very well organised in many cases looting and stealing and thieving.”

Last night Labour demanded the PM clear up an account of his uni days in which rampaging Bullingdon Club members are said to have smashed a restaurant window in 1987.

John Mann, MP for Bassetlaw, said: “David Cameron has questions to answer after his claim that he did not witness people throwing things through windows or smashing up restaurants during his days as a Bullingdon Club member.













“This is very different to what other people remember.

“If we are to get more responsibility throughout our society following the riots then the Prime Minister should set an example.”

The PM yesterday hit back with his own attack on the BBC’s reporting of the riots. He said: “When you listen to the BBC there’s a sort of danger of trying to put these things into a great mush and make that as an excuse for not acting.”

And sources close to No 10 have let it be known the Prime Minister’s team were furious with the programme over the line of questioning.

A source said: “Cameron’s team thought Evan Davis had totally overstepped the mark. Cameron was very angry, there’s no doubt about that. He hates it when his background and questions about his class are brought up.”

A Downing Street source insisted no official complaint had been made to the BBC following the programme.

The corporation yesterday defended its reporting of the riots after Mr Cameron’s attack. A spokesman said: “The BBC’s coverage and analysis of the recent riots endeavoured to explore all aspects, as our audiences would expect. We also sought to reflect a range of views as to the reasons behind the riots. We are confident we did this in an impartial and balanced manner.”

Davis defended his questioning on Twitter, saying it “was about whether there is a general decline and whether we can forgive youngsters caught up in stupid things”.

It has been claimed Mr Cameron retired early to bed before the raucous evening in which Bullingdon members ran from the police through the streets of Oxford after smashing up a restaurant. According to a club source, Mr Cameron was definitely at the party but, unlike most of his friends, managed to escape alongside Boris Johnson and another student called Sebastian Grigg.

Some members of the club ended up spending a night in the cells at Cowley police station.

Despite Mr Cameron’s denial yesterday, he has previously said that “there was a time at university when lots of people drank too much and fell over, and I plead guilty”.

Yesterday, Mr Cameron also revisited his famous “hug a hoodie” policy by saying the rioters needed “tough love” after enduring a hard upbringing.

He claimed many of the thugs had not been given enough love in their childhood and promised to turn around 120,000 problem families by 2015.

Student Leaders Urge University Principles To Restrict Fees

Student leaders have written an open letter to Scotland's university principals urging them to restrict fees to students from the rest of the UK.









NUS Scotland has appealed for a minimal increase, with fee waivers for the least well-off students.

Scottish students studying at home do not pay tuition fees.

But students from other parts of the UK are charged about £1,800 a year with that potentially increasing to £9,000 a year from 2012.

Scotland's National Union of Students has appealed for a minimal rise, with fee waivers for the least well-off.

NUS Scotland President, Robin Parker, said: "We are calling on principals to keep fee rises as low as possible in order to protect access, and I am sure that students will come down hard on any principal who decides to make their degrees more expensive than a degree in England.

"Under the new system Scottish student numbers are protected no matter what happens to demand from the students from the rest of the UK.

"We need to send the message to prospective students and their families in the rest of the UK that Scottish universities are open for business to them, and that their value is seen in academic terms, not in terms of the pound signs hanging over their heads."

"We need to send the message to prospective students and their families in the rest of the UK that Scottish universities are open for business"

Robin Parker NUS Scotland

A spokeswoman for the Scottish government said: "Scottish universities have already made clear that they intend to offer a range of bursaries and scholarships to make sure Scottish higher education remains accessible to learners from diverse backgrounds across the UK."

Alastair Sim, from Universities Scotland, said that "holding to the status quo" as fees go up to £9,000 in England would have been "catastrophic for Scotland".

He added: "No change would have meant Scottish universities become the cheap option for students looking to avoid high fees elsewhere which would have put tremendous pressure on places for Scottish students at Scottish universities.

"Scotland's universities want to continue to welcome students that live across the rest of the UK and will be sensitive to this, and other factors, in setting their fees."

David Cameron: No Turning Back On Tuition Fees Rise

Prime minister condemns students who tried to ransack Conservative HQ and criticises policing of riot

David Cameron vowed today that he would not turn back on trebling tuition fees and condemned the students who tried to ransack Conservative headquarters yesterday, saying the full force of the law should be used to prosecute violent protesters.















In a round of interviews in Seoul, where he is attending the G20 summit, Cameron said: "We won't go back. Look, even if we wanted to, we shouldn't go back to the idea that university is free."

He also urged the police to learn lessons from yesterday's riot, saying there were 30,000 police officers in London yet only a thin blue line of extremely brave police officers was available to "to hold back a bunch of people intent on violence and destruction".

He also insisted he had a mandate to push through the reforms to higher education, saying: "I think the will of the public was expressed at the time of the election when they rejected debt and deficit and putting off these difficult decisions under Labour, and they chose a new approach and we've got to be true to that and stick to that".

He said he was very glad the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, had called for an inquiry into the policing of the event, saying: "I think we need to learn the lessons rapidly." He said there had not been remotely enough police officers, adding that there may have been failures of intelligence.

"I think the police themselves have said that the problem here was about the planning, was about the intelligence, was about the resourcing of that particular operation."

But he added: "I am quite convinced that the reductions in police spending that we're making can actually be done without losing the visibility and the activity of the police officers on our streets."

The Metropolitan police said 51 people were arrested as a result of yesterday's disorder. A spokesman said it was not known if anyone had been charged or how many remained in custody at police stations across central London. A City of Westminster magistrate's court spokesman told the Press Association news agency that no one was listed to appear today to face charges linked to the violence.

Cameron disclosed he had been on the phone from Seoul to Conservative HQ in Millbank yesterday to check staff were safe.

He said: "I thought it was extremely serious. I could see a line – a thin blue line – of extremely brave police officers trying to hold back a bunch of people who were intent on violence and destruction."

He also denied that the violence represented a return to the kinds of riots seen in the 80s under Margaret Thatcher.

Asked if he feared the British social fabric was under threat, he said: "There have been protests – both peaceful protests and sometimes protests that have turned quite nasty – under all governments so I don't see it like that.

"Look, people who assault police officers or who smash windows or who break property they are breaking the law and, yes, those people I hope that they will be prosecuted. They should be."

He added: "Lawbreaking is not acceptable and I hope that the full force of the law will be used."

David Cameron: Fees Changes Are Fair

On the eve of the crucial Commons vote on university funding, Prime Minister David Cameron today sought to win over doubters with a speech promising the Government's proposed fees package will be "sustainable, competitive and fair".
















As students staged sit-ins and rallies in protest at the plan to treble the maximum tuition fee to £9,000, Mr Cameron used a speech in east London to acknowledge the "passion" of those opposing his plans.

But he insisted that their passion was "drowning out some of the truth" about the package on offer from the Government.

Mr Cameron insisted that his plans would widen access to university, create incentives to improve the quality of courses and leave the poorest graduates better-off than under the existing system.

Denouncing the current funding arrangements as "unsustainable, uncompetitive and unfair", Mr Cameron said: "Today I want to explain the real truth about what's going on, why we need change and why the change we are proposing is the best option we've got."

Mr Cameron rejected critics' claims that the Government is simply seeking to save money by removing state subsidies and heaping the burden of university funding on to students' shoulders.

In fact, the loans, grants and scholarships proposed by the Government will increase in value from £7 billion to £12 billion by 2015, he said.

But he said that sticking with the funding status quo would be possible only with a "radical" reduction in the numbers of students or by increasing Government spending.

Even in good economic times, Government spending alone could "never be a sustainable way of funding the growth in student numbers" and the need to keep up with international competitors, he said.

And in the current straitened circumstances, there are no "pots of money" for Government to dip into to help universities.

Hiking taxes to pay for higher education was "just not acceptable" because it would mean that non-graduates on low incomes would be subsidising the degrees of those who will earn more than them.

The existing system gave universities no real incentive to improve, because they get most of their money from central government, rather than having to compete for students' fees.

And universities' role as an "engine for social mobility" has "stalled" because of an "unfair" system which has seen a decline in the number of children from poorer households going to the top universities over the past few years, he said.

"We want more people to go to university, not less," said Mr Cameron. "So we have to find a new way of funding higher education in this country...

"We have no choice: we need change, we need to put the funding of our universities on a sustainable footing - and it's right that when it comes to doing this, successful graduates pay their share."

And he added: "I think it's clear that long-term, responsible reform of higher education means:

"Making it more sustainable, by asking successful graduates who go on to earn a good salary to make a bigger contribution.

"Making it more competitive and more responsive - with students calling the shots, and universities bending over backwards for them.

"But most importantly, making it fairer - opening the doors of universities to everyone, regardless of where they're from."

The graduate tax backed by Labour and the National Union of Students was "anti-aspiration, anti-success, anti-people who just want to get on and do the best in their lives", said Mr Cameron, who accused Ed Miliband's party of "the worst sort of opportunism" for backing it.

It was "simply not affordable" because it would take until 2041 before it produced enough money to fully fund higher education. It would centralise all university funding, removing the incentive for universities to compete for students. And it would encourage a "brain drain" of graduates moving overseas to avoid paying for their higher education.

Mr Cameron said a graduate tax would also cost many students more in the long run than the Government's proposals, as they would start paying as soon as they were earning £6,475 and would carry on paying for the whole of their working lives.

"With our new system, the poorest quarter of graduates will pay back less overall than they do currently," said Mr Cameron.

"And everyone will pay less per month than they do now."

Students and parents will not be required to pay a penny in fees upfront under the Government's proposals, said Mr Cameron.

He rejected the argument that the prospect of debt will put potential students off going to university, arguing: "They can tell the difference between upfront fees they pay now or contributions they make when they are earning money later."

Graduates will not start repaying fees until they are earning £21,000 - and will stop paying if their income drops below that level or they stop working to look after children. Payments will be made at a rate of 9% of earnings over the £21,000 threshold for a maximum 30 years.

Mr Cameron said the proposed fees would produce "sustainable" funding for universities, which would have 60% of their income from private sources and 40% from the state, rather than 60% from the state as at present.

The system would make universities more competitive by putting spending power in the hands of students, putting pressure on universities to drive up standards.

And the Government's proposals were "the fairest option on the table - fairer than the current system and fairer than the graduate tax too", said the Prime Minister.

He gave the example of a graduate care worker on £23,000, who would pay back loans at £44 a month under the current system or pay £38 a month under a 3% graduate tax, but would pay only £15 under the Government's scheme.

"This is the real truth about our plans," said Mr Cameron.

"They will put universities on a sound financial footing and make future expansion affordable.

"They will create a dynamic university sector that can compete with the very best in the world.

"And because the rich will pay more and the poor will pay less, they will put fairness back at the heart of our university system."