Labour to ‘change the way students pay for time at university’

Labour’s shadow education secretary has pledged that the party will “change the way students pay for their time at university” in England.

The comments by Bridget Phillipson, in her speech to the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, notably avoided mention of the word “fees”. But whether that omission was a matter of presentation or substance was a question left unanswered in her brief comments.

“We’ll change the way students pay for their time at university, so none of our young people fear the price they’ll pay for the choice they’d like,” said Ms Phillipson.

Party leader Sir Keir Starmer has previously announced that Labour was dropping its Corbyn-era policy to abolish tuition fees and fund universities through public spending – but he has not committed to a successor policy.

Ms Phillipson earlier this year wrote a Times article on student finance that referred to changes to the existing system that could, she said, “reduce the monthly repayments for every single new graduate without adding a penny to government borrowing or general taxation – Labour will not be increasing government spending on this”.

That appeared to be a reference to modelling by London Economics, commissioned by the University of the Arts London, that showed that a “stepped repayment system” where higher-earning graduates pay more could save the government money while removing “regressive features” of the changes to loans that took effect in September.

Ms Phillipson also addressed the Conservative attack on the last Labour government’s target for higher education expansion, described by Rishi Sunak as “one of the great mistakes of the last 30 years” and prompting an accusation from Sir Keir that the prime minister was against “working-class aspiration to go to university”.

The shadow education secretary said of the Tories: “Degrees are for their children, not ours: it’s never their kids’ choices or chances that they’re keen to wind back. Student debt for nurses, for young people starting out, looking to buy a home and build a family – not their problem. Other people’s children.

“The education secretary has made their ethic her motto: ‘nothing to do with me’. Conference, I tell you, we will change every part of it, and we will change it for good. In every part of our system, in every year of children’s lives, in every corner of our country, Labour will be the party of high and rising standards.”

Meanwhile, Ms Phillipson announced that Sir David Bell, the University of Sunderland vice-chancellor and former Department for Education permanent secretary, would lead what the party billed as a “major new review to shape Labour’s modern childcare system”.

john.morgan@timeshighereducation.com