It's time to get moving and get heard
Back in 1997, the Labour government introduced tuition fees and got rid of the maintenance grant. In response to this, there was a huge campaign by students across the country which pointed out that this meant levels of student debt would shoot up and that people from lower income backgrounds would be deterred from going to university.
Of course, this campaign didn't achieve anything, and was just a load of posturing student radical nonsense. Except that tuition fees were scrapped in Scotland. And grants reintroduced in Wales. And after the last election the government announced that the single biggest issue that people were unhappy about was student hardship and that they had realised that the system which they instigated meant that "too few young people from low income backgrounds go to university and worry about money is one of the reasons," as Margaret Hodge rather nicely put it. In other words, the government admitted that they were wrong and that they were going to change their policy. Not something which happens every day under the current government, or indeed under any government.
You might think that the astonishing success of that campaign would lead to an upsurge in students wanting to make sure that the current review creates a better student funding system. Instead, what has happened gives a new meaning to the phrase 'quitting while you're ahead', indeed it sometimes seems like many students think that the campaign against tuition fees didn't succeed, which means either that they are terminally dim, or that they haven't been informed about what is going on. Since the government decided to review the higher education funding system, practically the only event which our Student Union Finance and Funding campaign has been involved in is having half-naked Trots run around the Oxford Union.
We must take this opportunity to help bring about a system of funding higher education which means that everyone, whatever their background, has an equal chance to benefit from the fantastic opportunities that being at university provides and in which no one need live in fear of how to deal with huge debts. If we don't, then we will be letting down not only the people who have campaigned over the last few years against tuition fees and the abolition of the grant; but also future generations of people who won't have the chance to get a university education and all the benefits that brings with it. Last year, top-up fees were ruled out in the Labour manifesto, this year when asked about introducing top-up fees Margaret Hodge said that "nothing has been ruled out". If top-up fees were introduced, then no doubt there would be a big campaign against them. It seems a bit daft, though, that people would campaign against a malign policy but are not prepared to put a bit of effort in to making sure that something better is introduced.
No one individual, be it Tony Blair or anyone else, has a perfect solution to the question of how best to fund higher education - whether it be by graduates contributing through a graduate tax like in Scotland and Wales (although whether people from lower incomes are really going to be more likely to come to university if they are made to pay extra tax because they did so is a tricky question) or by funding through progressive taxation (OUSU's current policy). What is obvious, though, is that the more people who get together and share their ideas and experiences, the better the final outcome will be. The same goes for related and equally important issues like the chronic underinvestment in universities, the low pay for most university staff and further education, which is even worse off in terms of funding.
Don't listen to the people who say that it isn't possible to ensure that everyone has an equal chance of participating in higher education; they were the people who a few years ago were saying that tuition fees were here to stay and that there was no point in campaigning to try to get rid of them. Instead, how about getting involved in the most successful campaign of the last five years, discussing the issue with your friends, turning up to meetings to decide how the Student Union can best campaign on our behalf and maybe even going on the odd demonstration. Just think, in a few years' time when we've graduated, we could all be able to tell students about how lucky they are compared to how it was 'back in our day', chuckle as they refuse to believe that there was once a time when the government didn't provide students with a maintenance grant to make sure that they didn't have to run up huge debts, and remember how amazing it was to be involved in the campaign that changed the whole situation for the better.
Andrew Thomas is OUSU Exec for Battels and F&F
13th Jun 2002