Parliament set to debate on cutting tuition fees back to £3,000 after over 100,000 people sign petition
Bring back grants
A petition on the UK government’s website for tuition fees to be slashed back to £3,000 has had enough signatures for it to be considered for debate in Parliament.
The petition singles out the rise in tuition fees, the scrap of grants and the stress of debt as key reasons why people have held off from going to university, especially from low-income families. In order to be considered for debate, a petition needs over 100,000 signatures. The Petitions Committee will then consider whether the petition should be raised and debated by the House of Commons. At the time of writing, the petition has over 110,000 signatures.
According to the petition map, most of the signatures have come from London, with other high-density areas including the North-West of England and Birmingham.
Created by Zahra Walji the petition argues that: “University fees are rising more and more. £9000 for university fees is too high and the stress of being in dept is what puts individuals off applying for degrees. Now that grants have been removed it makes it difficult for family’s who need financial support but can’t get that anymore. [sic]”
The government announced a rise in tuition fees in late 2010. Despite the mass student demonstrations in London, fees were raised from £3,000 up to £9,000 for students starting in 2012. In 2015, the Government scrapped student maintenance grants for lower income students beginning in the 2016/17 academic year.