It’s amazing just how two-faced the Liberal Democrats can be. Just when you thought you’d heard and seen it all, there comes yet another revelation of astonishing deception. Even the lessons of the last year have not been learned. After their shameful U-turn on student fees, what do we find the Liberal Democrats campaigning for in next month’s Scottish elections? The introduction of university tuition fees? How wrong can you be? In fact, they have the effrontery to be campaigning on the very opposite. They want, according to their manifesto, to “keep higher education free – no fees and no graduate contribution”. Haven’t we heard that somewhere before?
What staggering nerve. You do wonder if the right hand knows what the left is doing. Do the Lib Dems ever talk to one another? This is the party that has been telling us Labour had left the economy in such a sorry state that there was no option but to introduce higher tuition fees. So the logic is that Scotland does not have an economic crisis, that it is no longer a part of the British economy. Can the Lib Dems ever be taken seriously again? Take a close look at their Scottish manifesto and you’ll find contradiction after contradiction with the Lib Dems promising policies that they have already reneged on in Westminster. It’s as if the Lib Dems were not part of the coalition Government, nor responsible for any of the current economic policies. “It’s nothing to do with us, guv.”
Of course, some Westminster Lib Dems will defend themselves by arguing that they did not vote for the fee increase, but either abstained or voted against. The point, however, is that those same Lib Dem MPs voted for the budgetary changes in the first place that slashed the subsidy to the universities that has made the £9,000 fee unavoidable. Once they had voted for that, voting against the fee increase was simply a hollow gesture. So don’t let any Lib Dem MP who voted against the rise tell you that they did it in good faith and in support of their election manifesto.
With all but a handful of universities now committed to charging the full £9,000 a year, the coalition’s education policy is in tatters. And not only their education policy. The new fees will have a marked effect on the Government’s financial strategy. The coalition had assumed that the vast majority of universities would be charging £6,000, but instead they will be charging one third more. This means that the Government is going to have put one-third more money upfront, leaving them with something of a major headache.
The slashing of the central government subsidy to the universities is already having a marked effect. Many universities are re-examining undergraduate courses with any course that fails to attract more than a dozen students likely to be written off as uneconomical and at risk. Traditional courses in the new universities such as history, geography and English literature will be under threat as the new universities opt to concentrate on those areas where their teaching can attract higher numbers. The only courses likely to survive the whirlwind will be those vocational subjects which the old universities tend not to do.
Meanwhile, the Russell Group of universities will concentrate all their efforts on those traditional subjects, although whether students will want to pay £9,000 for a degree in English, French or cinema studies is another matter. Further, mature students without formal qualifications, who have in recent years been welcomed into universities, will now find it impossible to afford the luxury of a life-changing experience.
“Everything is up for consideration”, says one senior academic. “In some faculties, they are having to think the unthinkable. Everything is in a state of flux and nobody knows what on earth is going to happen. Student numbers are now totally unpredictable.”
At Hope University in Liverpool, staff have already been told that one-third of their jobs are “on the line”. That will mean courses and whole subject areas being cut. At other universities, long-term courses such as architecture, veterinary science and medicine will also come under threat as students opt for shorter courses. One northern university is resolving the financial crisis by doubling the credits to each module so that only half the modules will be necessary.
It’s also in postgraduate studies that universities will feel the pinch. Universities are reportedly bracing themselves for a sharp decline in postgraduate applications. And it’s little wonder. Students finishing undergraduate degrees with £40,000 worth of debt are hardly likely to want to spend another £15,000 on getting an MA, let alone spending three years on a PhD that will land them with another £40,000 of debt. Some universities are already closing down postgraduate courses as part of their financial restructuring and are anticipating that in another year or two’s time many more postgraduate courses will close, especially in the new universities.
It’s well documented that lecturers are under increasing pressure not to fail students, as it will mean a loss of income. Students are now consumers and as such will demand more contact hours, more firsts, more course material, access to facilities and so forth. And if they don’t get it, they’ll complain and become even more litigious.
So when the Scottish Lib Dems come knocking on doors north of the border with their promises of free higher education, it might well be worth pointing out to them that universities south of the border are in a state of turmoil, thanks to those very same Liberal Democrats.
