AMENDMENTS have been made to the government’s plan to introduce university tuition fees.
After deferring the motion at December’s Tynwald sitting, Education Minister Tim Crookall MHK will seek approval for the Student Awards Regulations next week.
Changes have been made following concerns raised by students, parents and political representatives.
It would see all students contributing £2,500 a year towards their degree courses for the first time, from 2014, with those whose parents earn more than £80,000 a year contributing more on an incremental basis.
An Isle of Man government loan scheme would allow students to borrow the £2,500 a year contribution.
Currently, the government pays all fees up to a cap of £9,000 a year, although certain courses – including medical, veterinary and dentistry are exempt from that.
Under the revised scheme, the student alone will be liable for the loan. It was initially proposed that parents would have joint liability.
Director of education Martin Barrow said: ‘We think what we have done further protects those on the lowest incomes. One of the things we picked up on was young people from low income families were uncomfortable about asking their parents to guarantee the loan, and the parents were uncomfortable too.’
He said the department did not believe that students defaulting on their loans would be a big issue, due to the size of the loan and young people wanting to avoid getting a poor credit rating.
Anyone who did default would be pursued: ‘We will make every effort to recover the money from them.’
In addition, interest will not begin to accrue until the student has completed his/her studies – even if they go on to study at postgraduate level.
Under the initial proposal, interest would have been built up from the time the loan was approved.
Mr Barrow explained that the revised proposal meant that Treasury would lose out as a result of students accruing interest later.
But he said it had never been the department’s plan to make money out of the scheme: ‘We had always billed the interest payment as money that was going to fund the loan scheme itself.
‘We still think there will be sufficient funds coming in to fund it.’
A concern which has been raised repeatedly by students is that those from low income families will be hit hardest as all families earning up to £80,000 per year make the same contribution.
When asked whether the department had considered revising the sliding scale of contributions, Mr Barrow said: ‘Wherever we put that line, there will always be a break. We wanted to make sure there is no one from a low income family that feels they can’t take out a loan because of the impact on the family.’
He said some students had not been looking at the level of repayments ‘rationally’, with the loan not being repaid until their income is £21,000 and with those earning £22,000 only having to pay back £7 per month.
The amendments have been held as a victory by one of the students who has been protesting against their introduction.
But Ramsey Grammar School student Ciara Howes said that students would be continuing to protest, with their main concerns still outstanding.
Ciara, aged 16, said: ‘I think it definitely shows a victory in a sense that they (Department of Education) have realised the flaws of the proposal.
‘But the main issue still stands that students will be paying fees based on their parents’ income, and when they are earning £21,000 we are not earning what our parents were earning when the loan was assessed.’
She said: ‘The moral issue still stands that students have a matter of months to raise a significant sum of money to go to university.
‘And the financial issue still stands that no immediate savings are going to be made.’
When asked what difference she thought the amendments made, Ciara said: ‘They make a huge difference from the point of view of MHKs sitting on the fence. They now have an excuse to vote for the changes.
‘But the amendments make no real difference to the situation.’
St Ninian’s High School student Jack Gibney, aged 17, believes that students from low income families will be hit hardest, and that despite the amendments, they will still struggle to go to university.
‘This doesn’t help the people who we need to help the most, which are people who can’t find the money and the people who didn’t expect their parents to pay for it anyway because they knew they couldn’t anyway.’
He is urging people opposed to the introduction of tuition fees to carry on collecting signatures, even though the petition has already been presented, signed by more than 2,000 people: ‘Although we may be in the final sprint of this race, we need to carry on emailing and petitioning until the last moment.’
He added: ‘We can’t afford to lose this political battle, literally as well as figuratively. This isn’t a time for political apathy or idle cynicism.
‘We don’t have the luxury of hearing people who tell us that “fees are an inevitability” or that “we can’t change anything”.
‘The postponement has already proved these people to be wrong, and these comments just give people who could do something an excuse to do nothing.’
Sixth formers will again be protesting outside Tynwald before this month’s sitting, when the extra signatures will also be presented. Peter Karran MHK will present the petition in Tynwald.
FEES FACTFILE
Tuition fees for English students are capped at £9,000 a year.
Under the DEC plans most Manx students will pay a maximum of £2,500 a year towards their tuition fees. The Manx government will pick up the tab for the extra costs of more expensive medical, dentistry, veterinary and conservatoire music courses.
In all but a few universities, undergraduates are charged the same fee that would be charged to an English student attending the same course. But a number charge more – including Imperial College in London, Cambridge and Warwick, which will charge island students at international rates. Cardiff has advised that for certain courses the fees will be £12,000 rather than £9,000.
Manx students would have to pick up the balance – and in some cases could pay more than the English. It is possible that other universities may seek to charge more in future.
Scots pay no tuition fees while students in Wales and Northern Ireland pay £3,500. Tuition fees for English students are capped at £9,000 a year.