KCLSU calls on the government to reform higher education

Students at King’s College London received an email on Wednesday 13th November from KCLSU, detailing it’s acknowledgement of widespread panic and financial worry for it’s student body, in anticipation of an increase of undergraduate home tuition fees.

This comes after the UK Government announced during the previous week, that university fees in England will rise come April 2025, in line with the inflation occurring in the UK. This will be the first increase in eight years. Original fees have been capped at £9,250 since 2017. However, now home students who began post 2023 will begin paying a fee of £9,535 per academic year. Overall this is an increase of £285 on the fees.

The Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson also announced how the maximum maintenance loan for students from low socio-economic backgrounds will additionally be increased to match the rise in inflation rate.

The National Union of Students called the tuition fees rise a “sticking plaster”, but said higher maintenance loans “will make a real difference to the poorest students”.

According to Roar, the email addressed to students at King’s College London, saying: “We welcome the increase in maintenance loans, providing home students from the lowest-income families with as much as £414 extra per year.” 

However, before calling on the government, KCLSU asks King’s College London to “review its financial aid and support packages to ensure they align with inflation and the changing loan rates. This includes the King’s Living Bursary and Affordable Accommodation Scheme.”

The increased cost of living for students in London is something many are hyper-aware of and concerned about. Whilst this increase in the maximum maintenance loan is on it’s way, it is something many students have had to live without for a while.

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Further, in addressing the increase in tuition fees, KCLSU said: “Whilst we acknowledge the increase in tuition fees will offer relief to the sector and our own University, we join other Russell Group Students’ Unions and the NUS in calling on the Government to reform higher education funding with the aim of decreasing student fees in the future.”

It is unclear how the increase in tuition fees will offer relief to the sector and King’s themselves or how perhaps we could see a decrease in tuition fees in the future.

Before Keir Starmer entered government, he campaigned with Labour in 2020 to abolish home university tuition fees altogether, following in the footsteps of Scotland. However, he has since moved on from this pledge, and affirmed that his priority is the NHS.

Although the increase in maintenance loans is acknowledged by students to be of some financial relief, it comes at a time far too late. The increase in tuition fees fundamentally will impact applications and enrolments to Russell Group universities in the UK in the next year – deterring aspiring students from especially low income backgrounds, who will fear that they will not be able to afford study.

Students at King’s have expressed their apprehension at the rise in tuition fees – claiming that they “don’t see where the money is going.” Another student said how they had essentially lost half of their first year due to lecturer strike action in September 2022, and they received a real lack of support following. They said, “the way we have been treated as students is really really poor.”

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson defended the decision, saying: “Universities must deliver better value for money for students and taxpayers, that is why this investment must come with a major package of reforms so they can drive growth around the country and serve the communities they are rooted in.”