Shropshire MPs to back tuition fee rise
Wednesday 8th December 2010, 11:29AM GMT.
Four out of six MPs representing Shropshire and Mid Wales today said that they would be voting in favour of an increase in university tuition fees, despite the student protests.
MPs vote tomorrow on a proposal which could see students paying up to £9,000 a year.
Out of Shropshire’s five MPs three have agreed to back the proposal, but Telford Labour MP David Wright is against the move.
Conservative Wrekin MP Mark Pritchard was unavailable for comment.
Montgomeryshire Conservative MP Glyn Davies said he would back the Government’s plans.
Shrewsbury and Atcham Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski said: “The UK at the moment is in the worst financial position possible. Difficult decisions have been made and this is one of them.
“But, if a student wishes to pay this off early they should be able to do so without any penalties.”
North Shropshire Conservative MP Owen Paterson said he would also be voting in favour. He said: “I am strongly in favour of the proposal which will strengthen our universities and the repayment threshold is higher than it is at the moment.”
Ludlow Tory MP Philip Dunne said it was important that those in society who benefit from going to university should be the ones who fund it.
Mr Davies said: “I agree with the cutback. It is being done with the best options being made available for the poorest people.”
But Mr Wright said: “I think it is extremely unfair and is a disincentive for people to go on into higher education.”
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Why are Mid Wales MPs voting for the rise?
…Oh, I forgot, Wales plans to subsidise its own students’ discounted tuition fees by allowing it’s universities to obtain higher ones from English students…
…silly me!
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Why Scots and Welsh MPs have a vote to increase my costs, yet continue to protect their own constituents is beyond me. Anyone out there who can explain the logic?
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Ian,
It ain’t logic, it’s democracy!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Whip#United_Kingdom
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No suprise really? its the lib dems that will be punished for this
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They certainly will. Their shameful reneging on pledges for the sake of a temporary taste of government will eliminate them as a political force for decades.
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some students were protesting in shrewsbury town centre at lunchtime.
it was pretty lack lusture to be honest and no one took any notice.
i dont see what all the fuss is about, after all they aren’t exactly paying any real tax yet and its us real tax payers that have to ultimately foot the cost of this rubbish.
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Why should pensioners get free TV licences whilst educating our future work force is considered too expensive? Unless you live in Wales or Scotland of course.
It’s all very well saying that those who go to uni earn more and should pay for their own fees but although they can sometimes earn more for more qualifications it is usually because they have further knowledge and a lot more responsibility.
They earn more also because they work harder and have more stress.
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“They earn more also because they work harder and have more stress”.
errrr….. are you living in the real world? they do not work harder at all, and they certainly do not have more stress. have you been to uni and seen the student bars every night of the week? thats not stress.
The increase is welcomed by most people, why should the tax payer foot the bill all the time. Either get on with it or get a job and earn real money and pay real tax.
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The whole economy benefits from the population gaining degrees and higher qualifications. This is where our doctors, teachers, professionals qualify. With university only being the preserve of the rich the UK is going back to the 1950′s. How are you going to motivate children to do well at school knowing that it is how much their parents earn which will determine how well they do and what jobs they ultimately get.
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this has just reinforced my opinion that politicians will say and promise you anything to get elected, and get their snouts back in the expenses trough.
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I’m not talking about the students Darren I’m talking about those that use their degrees to get better paid jobs for which in return they hopefully but not always earn more money.
You know,
staff
nurses,surveyors,planners,teachers,scientists,architects,solicitors,dentists etc etc.
Even if they did have a happy time at uni they still had to pass the exams which can be quite stressful Darren.
Are you happy to see England a third class country with Wales, Scotland and Europe providing the majority of graduates?
I think you are being short sighted and quite offensive calling 6th form students rubbish.
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Maybe i am being quite offensive but im being realistic. This country became even worse when David Cameron took control, now look whats happening, and to be fair so what if Wales, Scotland and Europe provide the majority of graduates it won’t change things will it.
Not short sighted dear, i’m just seeing it as it is.
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What these students do not realise is that they will not be required to fork out anything until they start earning above a certain threshold. I believe this is around £21K. This is more than i currently earn and i manage to get by paying my mortgage, bill and just about afford to go out once or twice a month.
Even when they do start paying back it is incremental against what salary they earn. I heard a radio interview today stating that a graduate earning £50000 a year would pay back per month in ther region of £275. Hardly excessive considering £50000 would pay a monthly net salary of £2984.20.
The argument that it would hit the poor is a feeble one because anyone earning above the stated £21k i would not exactly consider poor!
£9000 does seem like a lot of money in the long run but this is the extreme and most students will pay substantially less than this.
Further to this, i wander how many students (or indeed general members of society) rack up debts to the tune of £9000 on credit cards and the like but think nothing of it?
If the students spent less time protesting and more time “studying” the policy then things may become clearer, although once all is said and done i suspect even then the majority would carry on playing at being politically active and campaign basically because a bloke (Nick Clegg) promised one thing when he thought he had no chance of leading a government and then delivered another once he had to compromise in order to form a government.
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Full subsidies for degrees the country needs: mathematics, the sciences, engineering, IT, finance, medicine.
If you want to do a degree in the history of Lady Gaga or modern dance then pay for it yourself!
Simples!
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No one has mentioned the fact that parents of the future students are the ones who will be paying a lot more money in an attempt to offset the debts of their offspring and again it will be the middle class tax payers being hit the hardest so thanks Dave & Nick.
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Andy makes a great point.
Degrees in subjects that the UK desperately need like Science, Languages, Engineering, Medicine, IT and Maths should be free of all cost and places awarded on ability and not ability to pay.
If this means that people wanting to study David Beckham or other meaningless courses pay more, then so be it.
Education should be available to the brightest students regardless of ability to pay, that is true equality.
Equality is not setting ridiculous targets to send 50% of people to university so that the majority leave with meaningless qualifications and a debt for life.
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As an aside it is no surpise to me that the likes of Daniel Kawczynski and Philip Dunne are offering their support to the rise.
I very much doubt they, or their families, would have any problems affording the rise on fees.
These people live on another planet and demonstrate the fact to us regularly.
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personally I think all the MPs who think it’s a good idea and went to uni should pay back all their tuition fees with interest, but then again they’d claim it back on expenses.
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Spot on comment.
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on the basis of that vote he’s just lost my vote then, discgraceful ripping off an entire generation
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shame on them
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