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ANALYSIS
The Other Half In media reports of the hustings for the next NUS President, internal differences between candidates were overshadowed by the blanket opposition of all candidates to any further increase in tuition fees. The consequent victor, Aaron Porter, has since criticised Labour and the Conservatives for 'an absence of dialogue' and lack of detail regarding tuition fees: both parties are waiting for the Browne Review to conclude in May. The initial phase of the report concluded that the introduction of top up fees had not harmed full-time participation and Browne has in the past commented that a fourfold rise in fees would not be unreasonable. As for the Liberal Democrats, Porter commented that they had 'waivered' on their position to abolish tuition fees. It was interesting therefore to gain an insight into the voting direction of students themselves in a survey published by High Fliers Research in April. It had polled final year students at thirty leading universities and found that the Conservatives enjoyed the greatest support at twenty institutions; the Liberal Democrats at only two. Such results indicate that the student constituency is not significantly aligned behind the policy which the National Union of Students has as its flagship. The near equal distribution of support - 30% of students expressed support for the Conservatives; 21% for Labour and 19% for the Liberal Democrats - does however show that students set the tone early for the election to be a true three horse race. Students' concerns are less likely to be the prospect of future tuition fee rises than their own prospects, as they emerge into a shrunken jobs market saddled with debt. In a BBC poll in mid-April, two thirds of voters aged 18-22 picked the economy, employment, taxation or debt as the key election battleground. What was clear in the details of the High Fliers report which had not emerged in the press was the extent to which students voting direction - as across the electorate - correlated to their background and aspirations. Those choosing to vote Conservative were most likely (42%) to be starting a graduate job the following year and far more likely than their Labour and Liberal Democrat voting peers to be considering a career in law, investment banking, management consulting or a personal business enterprise. Those voting Liberal Democrat cited the greatest graduate debts and the lowest expected starting salary. The new 'Conservative student' that the report pertains to exist is, in fact, an illustration of the educational apartheid which runs through our higher education system. The thirty 'leading universities' included in the poll are indeed thirty of the most esteemed and high achieving across Britain, yet only three have intakes of state school pupils of above average. Of the seven institutions who had intakes above and up to 5% below the average intake of state school pupils, Labour is the favoured party of six. This illustrates that there is no simple 'student vote' to garner, not least with 'relevant' policies such as tuition fees. Yet, the polarisation of the student population itself reinforces the argument for reform in favour of greater educational equity, such as advocated by the NUS campaign. However, evidence suggests that to do so at tertiary level is too late for many students. Ucas figures released earlier this month showed that A Levels are now taken by 49.8% of British students accepted onto degree courses. This is extraordinary not only because it has fallen from 70% in a decade, but because we know that the Russell Group and 1994 group of universities - 27 out of 30 of those in the High Fliers survey - are unlikely to accept pupils with the alternative qualifications sat by the other half. Last week, one of Britain's largest examination boards suggested that the transfer from traditional qualifications to more vocational ones in schools was leading to a 'bankrupt system'. In many cases, it seems that the opportunities for pupils to access the best - and what the NUS fear will become the most expensive - universities are curtailed far before the invoice arrives. Any comments? Email Zenobe Reade to join the debate. |
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