Geo436.com blog: UK coalition looking at ”restrained” tuition fees

Geo436 LONDON: British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg suggested the coalition was looking at imposing a limit on university tuition fees days after a proposal to remove the cap caused tensions within the government.

Clegg said he felt “uneasy” about unlimited fees, as recommended in a review earlier this month, and that an announcement would be made in the next couple of weeks.

“We are looking at something that would be more restrained,” he said on Sunday.

The plans in a government-ordered review, written by former BP Chief Executive John Browne, caused tensions in Clegg”s party, the junior partners in the coalition government, with speculation it could lead to a parliamentary defeat if enough Liberal Democrat legislators rebelled.

Some did voice their concern, including the party”s deputy leader Simon Hughes.

Free university tuition had been a cornerstone of the Lib Dems” election campaign before it entered government with the right-leaning Conservatives in May. Legislators, including Clegg, had signed pledges not to vote for a rise.

The government broadly has backed Browne”s proposals to remove a cap of 3,290 pounds ($5,164) a year that universities in England are allowed to charge students for their tuition.

They would be free to set their own annual fees but would be hit with a levy on fees over 6,000 pounds.

By transferring a big chunk of costs from the state to the student, the plan will help the government”s efforts to curb a record peacetime budget deficit.

The Lib Dems have bled support since joining the coalition with the latest opinion poll, by ICM for the News of the World on Sunday, showing it down two points at 16 percent – seven percent lower than at the election.

“I am uneasy about the idea that you have in theory unlimited fees, so we are looking at something that is more restrained,” Clegg said.

“We will hear about it soon. We are very keen to make sure that people know exactly what is going to happen as soon as possible, within in the next couple of weeks or so.”

Business Secretary Vince Cable, a Liberal Democrat, said the government was working on a way to make sure that those students who go on to very high-earning jobs and pay off their debt relatively quickly still contribute interest payment.

“We do have to think about how to find a way by which they make some sort a contribution towards low-earning graduates,” he told SKY news television.

“It is a tricky, technical problem, but we are working on it.”