Government petition to reduce uni fees to £3k gets 340,000 signatures in one day

A petition to reduce tuition fees from £9,250 to £3,000 in light of the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic has reached 343,000 signatures on the Parliament website.

The petition asks for tuition fees to be reduced from the standard rate of £9,250 to £3,000. This was the price of uni tuition in 2008, before the fees were raised dramatically by £6,000 in 2010.

It states: “Call on the government to consider holding debates in Parliament between MPs and university students to raise/discuss issues that affect them.

“It will allow students to voice their opinions and concerns about tuition fees of £9250 a year which are too high, particularly as grants have been removed.”

The petition, which was set up yesterday, needed to reach 100,000 signatures to be considered for debate in Parliament.

Georgia, a third-year student at the University of Sussex, is hopeful this petition is what it takes to make the government finally pay attention to students. “The fact that there even has to be a petition in order to lower tuition fees is beyond a joke,” she told The Tab.

“The last nine months have been pure hell. University students are expected to produce the same quality of work even though the circumstances in which we learn have totally changed for the worse. The level of teaching and experience we have at uni is nowhere near the quality it should be.”

This comes as Boris Johnson finally addressed university students in his briefing yesterday, thanking them and promising to “look at” their rent costs for this term.

The petition to reduce tuition fees can be found here.

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