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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/education/live/2018/feb/19/theresa-may-to-set-out-tuition-fee-proposals-politics-live
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| Theresa May suggests university shouldn't be only way to success - politics live | Theresa May suggests university shouldn't be only way to success - politics live |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The foreign secretary has compared a dead monkey’s head to a Labour backbencher. | |
| The UK’s chief diplomat muttered the remark after asking officers what species a trophy monkey was during a visit to a police unit that confiscates wildlife products, Press Association reports. A police officer suggested a macaque, but Boris Johnson said: | |
| What’s this poor chap here? Faint air of a ... Labour backbencher. | |
| He made the comment at the Metropolitan police’s wildlife crime unit in London, where some of the items recovered from raids on the black market are stored. | |
| The former Northern Ireland secretary Peter Hain has urged Labour to “lead the resistance” to any hard border on Ireland post-Brexit. | |
| Hain swung behind the leader of the Irish nationalist party, the SDLP, which wrote to the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, today urging him to oppose a hard Brexit because of its implications for the Irish frontier. | |
| The SDLP leader, Colum Eastwood, said in the letter that Brexit has the potential to “dismantle” the Good Friday agreement. Supporting Eastwood’s analysis, Hain said: | |
| Colum Eastwood, of our sister party the SDLP, is right to warn of the dangers Brexit poses to the Northern Ireland peace process and to urge Labour to do all it can to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland. | |
| The former secretary of state, who is a leading figure in the pro-European Open Britain group, added: | |
| Labour must stand firmly behind the agreements between the British and Irish governments and the Northern Ireland parties on which the peace process rests. Already Brextremists on the Conservative benches are calling for these to be torn up precisely because they stand in the way of a hard Brexit. | |
| Labour must lead the resistance any moves to a hard border and to insist that Theresa May stands up to the extremists in her party who insist on dragging her ever further to the right. | |
| There’s been some reaction to the lines being trailed ahead of May’s speech on the post-18 education review, which due to be delivered in Derby this afternoon. The full details on what May is expected to say are here: | |
| Reacting to the news this afternoon, Nick Hillman, the director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said: | |
| The key question is how much room for manoeuvre they (the review panel) are going to have in terms of public spending. | |
| He questioned whether the panel could be asked to come up with proposals that do not involve an increase in public spending or being allowed to “spend real money”. | |
| Sally Hunt, the general secretary of the University and College Union, said: | |
| The prime minister can complain about how we have one of the most expensive systems of university tuition in the world, but it was the Conservatives that introduced it and without a radical look at the whole system little can really change. | |
| Worryingly, this review already looks like little more than finding new ways to cut spending on universities. Linking the price of some degrees to earnings is deeply flawed and fails to acknowledge the many factors which affect graduate income. | |
| Alistair Jarvis, the chief executive of vice-chancellors’ group Universities UK, said: | |
| A cut in tuition fees may seem like an easy political solution, but it would see universities in England struggle to provide students with the world-class education they currently enjoy. | |
| Unless a cut to fees is met in full from other funding sources, we risk returning to a system where courses are seriously underfunded or the number of places capped. That would be bad for graduate skills and the economy, for social mobility and for student choice. | |
| Here’s the full report on Theresa May’s appearance on This Morning this morning from my colleagues, Peter Walker and Jessica Elgot: | Here’s the full report on Theresa May’s appearance on This Morning this morning from my colleagues, Peter Walker and Jessica Elgot: |
| David Laws, who served as a Liberal Democrat minister in the coalition government that oversaw the hiking of tuition fees to £9,000 a year and now chairs the Education Policy Institute thinktank, warned against raising expectations of significant cuts to tuition fees. | David Laws, who served as a Liberal Democrat minister in the coalition government that oversaw the hiking of tuition fees to £9,000 a year and now chairs the Education Policy Institute thinktank, warned against raising expectations of significant cuts to tuition fees. |
| The government needs to rescue its post-18 funding review from the major risk that it builds expectations of a significant and politically inspired cut to tuition fees, which would largely benefit higher earning graduates and do precious little to improve the UK’s social mobility, or our low skills post-16. | The government needs to rescue its post-18 funding review from the major risk that it builds expectations of a significant and politically inspired cut to tuition fees, which would largely benefit higher earning graduates and do precious little to improve the UK’s social mobility, or our low skills post-16. |
| The prize here is the opportunity to improve the funding of post-18 technical education – possibly by squeezing the funding of the lower cost courses currently subsidised by £9,250 fees. Students also need much better information about the economic consequences of the courses and institutions which they select. | The prize here is the opportunity to improve the funding of post-18 technical education – possibly by squeezing the funding of the lower cost courses currently subsidised by £9,250 fees. Students also need much better information about the economic consequences of the courses and institutions which they select. |
| A little more detail on May’s comments on “old fashioned” attitudes about technical education. She told This Morning: | A little more detail on May’s comments on “old fashioned” attitudes about technical education. She told This Morning: |
| For a long time, I’ve worried about the fact that in this country we’re very good at saying academic education is good and for everybody, but we’ve never put sufficient emphasis on technical and vocational education. | For a long time, I’ve worried about the fact that in this country we’re very good at saying academic education is good and for everybody, but we’ve never put sufficient emphasis on technical and vocational education. |
| The prime minister added: | The prime minister added: |
| We’ve got to break this old fashioned attitude that there’s only one way through in education, and we’ve got to say, I’ve always believed that what we should say is ‘what’s right for every young person? What’s right for every child?’ Because education can unlock the door of your future. | We’ve got to break this old fashioned attitude that there’s only one way through in education, and we’ve got to say, I’ve always believed that what we should say is ‘what’s right for every young person? What’s right for every child?’ Because education can unlock the door of your future. |
| May was asked about the government’s plan to spend £5m – or £300 per primary school, as This Morning put it – on training teachers to spot mental health problems in children. | May was asked about the government’s plan to spend £5m – or £300 per primary school, as This Morning put it – on training teachers to spot mental health problems in children. |
| I have actually seen some of these teachers being trained in the mental health toolkit and what I found from them was that, actually, they welcomed the fact that they were being given this support because, often, it’s the teacher that the individual goes to. | I have actually seen some of these teachers being trained in the mental health toolkit and what I found from them was that, actually, they welcomed the fact that they were being given this support because, often, it’s the teacher that the individual goes to. |
| Asked how the average of £300 per school is going to cover that, May said the teachers need training so they can help young people who do come forward to them. But she offered no specifics in response to the question. | Asked how the average of £300 per school is going to cover that, May said the teachers need training so they can help young people who do come forward to them. But she offered no specifics in response to the question. |
| And that’s that. In all, there wasn’t much more detail on May’s priority for the day: the education review. But she did cover mental health care and bullying; more of which we’ll bring you soon. | And that’s that. In all, there wasn’t much more detail on May’s priority for the day: the education review. But she did cover mental health care and bullying; more of which we’ll bring you soon. |
| Asked if she’s enjoying her job, the prime minister says yes. “There’s huge issues to be dealing with but it’s worthwhile,” she adds. | Asked if she’s enjoying her job, the prime minister says yes. “There’s huge issues to be dealing with but it’s worthwhile,” she adds. |
| Schofield asks May if she doesn’t spend a lot of her time looking behind her to “make sure someone isn’t about to stab you in the back”. No, May insists, she is getting on with the job. | Schofield asks May if she doesn’t spend a lot of her time looking behind her to “make sure someone isn’t about to stab you in the back”. No, May insists, she is getting on with the job. |
| Asked if she can “hang on”, if she “feels secure”, she says: “Yes, I’m doing the job.” | Asked if she can “hang on”, if she “feels secure”, she says: “Yes, I’m doing the job.” |
| The prime minister is discussing keeping young people safe online. Schofield asks her whether a single national government can do that. “We have to start here and we have to then work with the companies themselves,” she says. | The prime minister is discussing keeping young people safe online. Schofield asks her whether a single national government can do that. “We have to start here and we have to then work with the companies themselves,” she says. |
| May is being asked about mental health care and dealing with bullying. She says some schools do not want to admit the latter is happening in their institutions because of concerns about what it will say about the school. | May is being asked about mental health care and dealing with bullying. She says some schools do not want to admit the latter is happening in their institutions because of concerns about what it will say about the school. |
| May says a lot of people have been encouraged to go to university, even if it’s not the right path for them. | May says a lot of people have been encouraged to go to university, even if it’s not the right path for them. |
| Asked if it would be possible to become prime minister without a university education, Theresa May says yes and cites one of her predecessors, John Major. But she agrees with Philip Schofield that Major is in a class of one in that respect in recent British history. | Asked if it would be possible to become prime minister without a university education, Theresa May says yes and cites one of her predecessors, John Major. But she agrees with Philip Schofield that Major is in a class of one in that respect in recent British history. |
| May says “some issues have arise” with the fees regime the government of which she was a senior member introduced. | May says “some issues have arise” with the fees regime the government of which she was a senior member introduced. |
| Asked about reintroducing maintenance grants, which Labour have promised to do, May says it is one of the issues the review will consider. | Asked about reintroducing maintenance grants, which Labour have promised to do, May says it is one of the issues the review will consider. |
| Theresa May is now on the sofa. She’s discussing the review of post-18 education. May says she understands the concerns around the debts people build up but also wants to look at routes into technical education, rather than university. | Theresa May is now on the sofa. She’s discussing the review of post-18 education. May says she understands the concerns around the debts people build up but also wants to look at routes into technical education, rather than university. |
| Asked if she thinks there’s an element of snobbery, she says some people think technical education is for “other people’s children” and we need to remove the stigma. | Asked if she thinks there’s an element of snobbery, she says some people think technical education is for “other people’s children” and we need to remove the stigma. |