Students are united against fees - almost
Stacey Berriman reports. Oxford's campaigners against tuition fees gained an important victory in a vote taken by an OUSU special council on the issue last Friday. The special council, the first in OUSU history, was convened to clarify the position held by OUSU on the issue of student finance.
The results were broadly in favour of state funding for top-up fees, tuition and maintenance, although a minority of one third believed that tuition fees should not be the responsibility of the state. OUSU President Anneliese Dodds believed that a debate and vote regarding OUSU's policy in student finance was long overdue. "The last time that we last asked members for their views on student finance was five years ago. Obviously that was a long time ago and a new survey was long overdue." She added: "OUSU's policy on student finance needed updating this year in light of the possibility that top-up fees might happen in the future. Lots of people felt that the ideal way to find out people's opinions was to have a referendum, but that would have been nigh impossible to organise in Trinity term as the JCRs are too busy."
Anneliese felt that one of the most significant parts of the process was gathering the views of JCR members, not just council delegates. "Mandating the JCRs to ask their members for their views allowed them to discuss the issue was something that was undoubtedly very valuable. Getting the representatives to ask their JCR how they wanted to vote was the best way for us to get the views of members without having the delegates represent their own personal views." She added: "The results reflect the fact that there is a difference of opinion between tuition fees and top-up fees. People seem to think that top-up fees are the worst of the two and the amount of people against top-up fees is extremely significant. It also shows the massive student opinion against the situation we have at the moment."
Cat Muge, Co-Chair of the Finance and Funding Committee at OUSU was one of the people involved in sparking off the debate. She seconded a motion suggesting that a vote be held for students to decide OUSU's future position on grants and tuition fees that led to the convening of the special council. She said that the reason she called for the vote was because she felt that although OUSU held a referendum on tuition fees some years ago, a lot of people had become apathetic. "One of the main aims of the motion was to get people talking again. Even though there is a lot of opposition within the university, people are beginning to get used to tuition fees. I was pleased with the result as it gives us something to take to the University."
Each JCR was mandated to discuss the matter in a meeting to decide how their delegates should vote. For each of the three areas: tuition fees, top-up fees and maintenance grants, the JCRs were given up to three votes. It was the responsibility of individual JCRs to establish how those votes should be used. The results were confirmed once each JCR had given the minutes of the meetings to the Chair of the Council, Eleanor Fletcher.
However, a certain amount of controversy taints the proceedings, due to the fact that St Peter's college did not vote. As the only college with a pro-fees stance, no debate was carried out in order for representatives at St Peter's to be able vote at the special council. A source, which declined to be named, alleged that the reason St Peter's did not hold a meeting was because some pro-fee members were concerned that the college's previous decision would be overturned. "Some members of the college were afraid that the original vote wouldn't stand up to further debate. When the vote happened in the first place, some of us were concerned that it hadn't been carried out in the most democratic manner."
JCR President Stephen Hickey was out of the country when the vote was taken, but college NUS representative Katherine Bartlett said that the college had not held a meeting to decide how the delegates should vote simply because one was not arranged before the President left the country. "The reason that St Peter's didn't vote was quite simply because we didn't have a mandate. No forum was organised before the JCR President left. It was not a political statement in any way." She added "Those allegations are unfounded and scandalous."
Anneliese Dodds hoped the fact that the college did not vote would not give the university cause to reject the outcome of the special council. "Hopefully they will see the failure of St Peter's to vote as just an idiosyncrasy." She was, however, generally hopeful that the university might consider the outcome of the council when deciding its stance on top-up fees. "With any luck the vote should make a difference within the University; we hope that it will take notice of the views shown in the vote." She expressed hope that, "in light of the recent controversy regarding Laura Spence, the university will say to the government that Oxford is not elitist because it isn't charging top-up fees."
25th May 2000