By Alex Butler
Prime Minister Theresa May announced that the Tory party would once again look into student finance and university fees at the Conservative Conference in Manchester on Sunday.
This latest announcement follows the recent rise of the cap from £9,000 to £9,250 back in July.
Conservative Leader May announced pledges to reform on rising tuition fees, freezing the £9,250 price tag, even as the fee is set to rise next year to £9,500 to keep in line with inflation. She also proposed plans to increase on repayment thresholds from £21,000 to £25,000, to ease the burden on middle and lower earning graduates by saving them up to £360 next year.
The move comes following the massive youth vote for Labour in the snap election, a move which Conservatives hope will renew younger voters confidence in the Conservative party. The Government is in consideration of other ideas such as cutting interest rates on loans and introducing lower fees for students studying certain subjects, where there is a skills shortage.
In an interview with The Sun, May expressed: “We have listened to those concerns and we are going to act to offer a fairer deal for students and young people”.
May hopes that in raising the University fee cap she would see a “diversity in the system” with a wider variety of courses offered that would be shorter and cheaper, rather than charging maximum amount.
The plans, announced on Twitter, have already been criticized by Labour MP for Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport, Luke Pollard: “So your choice is annual tuition fees of £9,250 with the Conservatives or annual tuition fees of £0 with Labour”.
NUS President Shakira Martin also denounced the Tory Plans in a press statement online, commenting: “The government’s announcement on fees today are by no means the major changes required to fix the broken funding system for universities”.
Martin further slammed the capping of fees; adding: “It will make virtually no difference to students”.
Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner, described the move as “a desperate attempt by the Tories to kick the issue into the long grass because they have no plans for young people and no ideas for our country”.
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