Keele University students join tuition fees campaign

HUNDREDS of students at Keele University have joined a campaign to block tuition fees being increased to as much as £5,000 a year.

The current cap on the amount universities can charge will be reviewed next year and many vice-chancellors are pressurising the Government to raise the fees limit or remove it altogether.

Students say this would deter some young people from going into higher education. Now Keele University's students' union and the Keele Labour Students group have joined forces to run the 'Keep The Cap' campaign.

In just a week, they have collected a 620-signature petition, which Newcastle MP Paul Farrelly is due to present to Universities Secretary John Denham.

Keele campaigners have also been getting students to sign caps, scribbling on them the amount of debt they expect to owe by the time they graduate. Some people will be up to £32,000 in the red.

Second-year student Carrie Martin, from Bignall End, near Newcastle, is predicting £24,000 worth of debts once fees, loans and other living costs are taken into account.

The 21-year-old, who also chairs Keele Labour Students, said: "It's very difficult to make ends meet. I live with my family and get the minimum grant you can get.

"I don't think I would have been able to afford to come to university if the fees had been higher. It is worrying and I fear I won't ever be able to pay off my debt."

Since 2006, the vast majority of English universities, including Keele, have charged full-time undergraduates the maximum fees, which currently stand at £3,145 a year. Students don't have to start paying this amount until after they graduate.

But universities say the combination of public funding and student fees is still not enough to cover the full costs of delivering degrees and investing in facilities.

Many vice-chancellors are keen to raise fees to £5,000 and a cap of £7,000 has also been mooted. If there is no limit at all, some elite universities may charge as much as £14,000, fuelling fears of a two-tier higher education system.

The earliest any changes would take effect is September 2010.

Gareth Snell, aged 22, who lives in Silverdale, recently finished his degree at Keele and is now taking a postgraduate course to train as a teacher.

He said: "It's cost me about £19,000 to cover living costs and loans for the four years.

"I'm annoyed that ministers want to lift the cap on fees. It's going to price some people out of education altogether."

Adam Mason, vice-president for education and welfare at Keele students' union, said: "I've been approached by a few students who have full-time jobs and are also in full-time education.

"It raises all sorts of problems. They may be missing lectures to go to work."

Mr Farrelly, who led a Labour backbench rebellion against the original plans for top-up fees several years ago, said he was supporting the students' campaign at Keele.

He added: "I do oppose lifting the cap and the introduction of a market system. I fear people from poorer backgrounds will tend to go to cheaper universities."

But Mr Farrelly stressed the safeguards MPs secured when top-up fees were introduced meant the fees limit could only be lifted if Parliament voted for a change.