University ideals and Labour’s tuition fee policy

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/mar/02/university-ideals-and-labour-tuition-fee-policy

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Universities, you say, are “about more than the acquisition of a checklist of professional competences” (Editorial, 28 February). Absolutely. But Cardinal Newman’s “idea of a university” encompassed only the sons (no women, no adults) of elites (no plebs). For universities’ role in a democracy, RH Tawney’s ideas, and ideals, offer much more. They were forged teaching working-class men and women, and in living and fighting with them on the western front.

Of course, Tawney said, different jobs require “different kinds of professional instruction”. But that does not justify excluding anyone from “the common heritage of civilisation” that a university should provide.

Tawney was wounded at the Battle of the Somme, but survived. Many of his comrades did not. “We stand,” he wrote shortly afterwards, “on a world of graves”; the “noblest memorial to those who have fallen” would be to rebuild education in a “generous, humane and liberal spirit”. Over the next 30 years, he did much to make universities more democratic and humane.

Educationists, Tawney thought, should not “flatter those who would pick over the treasures of earth and heaven for a piece they can put in their purses”. Today’s university leaders often seem to earn their (well-buttered) daily bread precisely by flattering plutocrats. Such is the price of asking public universities to survive without public funding. As we commemorate the centenary of the Great War, we should support, not undermine, the ideals for which its soldiers fought.John HolfordRobert Peers professor of adult education, University of Nottingham

• Thank you for your leader on the purpose of universities. In my experience they give you time to think and question, as well as acquire knowledge and skills, something I would not have had the courage to do at today’s fees.John Haworth Visiting professor in wellbeing, Bolton University

• Ed Miliband had a chance to announce something radical and inspiring on education, but has yet again failed to deliver (Labour eyes pension relief in bid to cut student fees, 27 February). Reducing fees to £6,000 will disappoint those who continue to argue for free higher education and, on Labour’s figures, will still leave most graduates facing debt of at least £30,000 on completing their degrees. Crucially, he missed the chance put forward a long-term funding solution for universities that would allow all who would benefit to go.

Noticeable by its absence also was any mention of the huge cuts in post-16 further education that have taken place in this parliament, and are set to continue. If he had promised to reverse these, and restore the education maintenance allowance, he could have offered real hope to some of the disadvantaged young people who have suffered most under this coalition government.Declan O’NeillOldham

Ed Miliband had a chance to announce something radical and inspiring on education, but has yet again failed to deliver

• They’re at it again. Labour’s tuition fee proposal is designed to provoke old people into protest in the hope that the sorry spectacle will attract the youth vote. It won’t. It will create hostility towards students and the young, and no votes. New Labour triangulation alienated many in the 90s and provoked hostility towards immigrants and the unemployed that is now exploited by Ukip. I wish Labour would stick to core issue narratives of social mobility, social justice and social equality rather than seeking to divide people disastrously.Ian D SmithBratton, Wiltshire

• Labour’s plans to restrict tax relief on pensions has attracted the usual complaints about tax raids and grabs, so it is worth putting them into context. A pension pot of £1m, which under Labour plans will be the maximum that can be accumulated without penalties, would be enough for a 65-year-old man to buy a £27,000-a-year pension, slightly more than the current average salary, at current annuity rates, according to calculations from Hargreaves Lansdown. The median amount from an annual and occupational pension in 2011, according to the Pension Policy Institute, was just £126 per week or £6,552 a year. Labour also plans to restrict tax relief on annual pension contributions to £30,000 – rather more than the average salary would cover.

The changes do not restrict anyone’s ability to save for their retirement – those who can afford to can save as much as they like. The restriction is in how much ordinary taxpayers are expected to subsidise pensions for the well-heeled and, even after Labour’s planned reductions, these subsidies would still be very generous.

The pity is that Labour is using the funds to prop up an unsustainable student loan system rather than for more fundamental reforms. Heather ConnonBewdley, Worcestershire

• According to Ed Davey and the coalition (Labour fee cap stupid says Davey, 2 March) it is good for students to run a huge personal deficit while investing in their personal future. But apparently it is bad for the UK to run a deficit in order to invest in all our futures. Why is this?Jane FrancesLittle Downham, Cambridgeshire