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NUS President defends ‘the cap’

In an interview with InQuire Live, Gemma Tumelty, President of the National Union of Students (NUS), said “Scrapping fees is not on the table, the debate is about the cap and the current student funding model. There are important issues, poor people being put off of applying [to universities], bursaries being withheld from students, and there is a lot of talk of changing the current system and going forward with those changes.”

A number of students have been unhappy with the choice of the NUS and Student Union (SU) leadership pursuing a campaign to ‘keep the cap.’ The NUS and SU’s have engaged in lobbying the government, along with teaching unions, to prevent the government lifting the £3000 cap on full-time undergraduate tuition fees in English Higher Education institutions.

A review of the tuition fees cap is due to be reviewed this year, and any changes will come into effect in 2010. Coalition 2010- formed of the NUS and teaching unions- has three stated positions on opposition to markets in education, variable tuition fees and the removal of the £3000 cap. Students at the University of Kent are already paying above-cap tuition fees of £3070. The interview with Gemma Tumelty will be published on Saturday.

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