Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Students threaten to unseat MPs over tuition fees

Fees protest

Thousands of students and lecturers are descending on London to demonstrate against plans to almost treble tuition fees in England to £9,000 per year.

The National Union of Students is threatening to try to unseat MPs who go back on pre-election pledges to oppose any rise in tuition fees.

It says the Liberal Democrats face an electoral "wipeout" if they break their pledge to vote against higher fees.

The coalition government says its plans are "fairer" than the current system.

But the UCU lecturers' union leader, Sally Hunt, attacked the proposals which will see the upper limit for fees rising from £3,290 to £9,000 per year from 2012.

Student targets

"There is nothing fair or progressive about tripling the cost of a degree and axing college grants that are often the difference between students being able to study or not," said Ms Hunt.

Student leaders say they expect 24,000 people to take part in the demonstration in Westminster.

They say they will try to use the proposed "right to recall" legislation to unseat MPs who ditch their election pledge to oppose an increase in tuition fees.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11719929

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