The youth and student branch of the Green Party has welcomed the Chancellor’s announcement today that student loans will be extended to postgraduate students over the age of 30, part-time students and those studying in further education, but has called for the government to scrap loans entirely and restore maintenance grants.
In the Autumn Statement and Comprehensive Spending Review this afternoon, Chancellor George Osborne not only confirmed that maintenance grants for the poorest university students will be replaced by loans, but announced too that bursaries for student nurses will be scrapped. [1]
Dave Cocozza, the Green Party’s Higher Education spokesperson, said:
“Today has been another dark day for education. Nursing degrees are among some of the most important qualifications in the HE sector, and it is mine and my party’s belief that students should not be left with more debt because of their financial or socioeconomic background. Our vision is one of a sustainable higher education system that provides high quality degrees with no student debt, and unfortunately the Government’s reforms will push us further away from this goal.
“It is clear that these reforms are not going to deliver any significant savings for the taxpayer and are simply a Whitehall accountancy con to decrease the yearly spending and spread it over a longer period of time. The Green Party will continue to argue for a free education system providing equal opportunity for all students.”
The Young Greens have also criticised Osborne’s ‘coercive’ approach to sixth form colleges. The Chancellor announced today that sixth forms will be given the opportunity to convert to academies in order to reduce the VAT they pay, as part of the government’s goal to convert all schools to academies, and reaffirmed the government’s intention to take schools entirely out of the hands of local authorities. [2]
Young Greens Co-Chair, Hannah Clare said:
“To use the difficult financial situation many sixth form colleges are facing to coerce them into academisation is simply unacceptable. There is no evidence that academies perform better than traditional state schools, and instead of pursuing its obsession with academies and free schools, and taking education out of the hands of local authorities, this government should be listening to parents’ and teachers’ concerns and working with them to deliver a better standard of education for children and young people.
“The UK’s schools system is facing a crisis of overworked teachers and over assessed pupils, and yet instead of addressing these crucial issues the government is barrelling ahead with its forced privatisation of children’s education. We should all be worried by the government’s determination to remove any trace of accountability from the UK’s schools and colleges.
“The Green Party has long argued against the anomaly which sees free schools and academies reclaiming VAT on goods and services and sixth form colleges not, but we would solve this by allowing all sixth form colleges to claim this money back - not by forcing institutions into significant decisions about their pupils’ education based on financial concerns.”
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