Anger over tuition fees

Unions have condemned the government’s decision to increase tuition fees from £9,250 to £9,535 a year in England, with UCU university and college union general secretary Jo Grady calling the hike “economically and morally wrong”.

She said: “The model is broken; it has saddled students with decades of debt, turned universities from sites of learning into corporations obsessed with generating revenue, and continually degraded staff pay and working conditions.

“Labour accepts the issues facing higher education are systemic yet has only applied a sticking plaster.

“Its principles are vague and could be exploited by vice-chancellors, while higher fees mean even more graduates will fail to pay back their loans, ultimately costing the exchequer.”

The RCN nurses’ union called for financial incentives, including a loan forgiveness model for nursing students who commit to working in the NHS following graduation, and funding for living costs, to increase recruitment.

The union’s latest analysis of regional data from the UCAS university admissions service shows student nurse numbers have collapsed in every English region, and by up to 40% in some regions.

It said this latest decision would make a bad situation worse, discourage more people from joining the profession, and put at risk government plans to rescue the NHS.

There are currently over 31,000 unfilled nursing posts in the NHS in England.