The Young Greens, the youth branch of the Green Party, today spoke out against the announced cuts to the university budget, accusing the government of being able to bail out the nations banks, but not fund universities.
Sam Coates, Co-chair of the Young Greens, criticised the Universities Minister David Willetts for putting universities at risk of bankruptcy.
Sam Coates said:
"The government can assure the future of the banks, but failed today to guarantee that universities would be protected from bankruptcy.
"David Willetts has completely ignored the warnings given by UCU that many universities could go bankrupt from the planned cuts to teaching budgets. The recklessness of this policy has only been compounded by leaving a gap between the cut in funding and its eventual replacement through exploiting students with higher fees. In this time, there will undoubtedly be a drop in the quality of education that students receive."
This comes as the government announces a 6% cut in the universities budget today, well in advance of the increase in fees that they claim will fill the gap.
Sam Coates added:
"This will cause many universities to suffer in the interval, and when prestigious universities are allowed to raise their fees, those that offer more vocational subjects, which the government has not placed enough emphasis on, will lose out and be at risk of going under, ruining many aspiring students' education."