Plans to slash tuition fees met with backlash from senior Tories

PLANS to slash tuition fees were met with a backlash yesterday from senior Tories who warned cheaper university places will cost billions and not help the most disadvantaged.

Former Education Secretary Justine Greening said the road would be fraught with pitfalls.

And Tory Education Committee chair Rob Halfon questioned whether cutting fees would help the poorest students or solve Britain’s skills shortage.

As part of a new Government review, the new Education Secretary Damian Hinds said universities would be ordered to slash fees for some courses to reflect the actual cost of them - and what future earnings would be.

But his predecessor Ms Greening - who was against a review - warned it would be “a challenge working out what is a beneficial degree”.

Ahead of a sweeping appraisal of the fee system, Mr Hinds suggested arts and social science courses which are the cheapest to run should cost students less.

The current system of fees means moist students are charged £9,250 a year in England and many leave university with debts of up to £50,000.

Mr Hinds said: “I don’t think politicians are going to be setting the cost and the prices for different courses.

“All forms of education, all courses, all subjects have great value, have great worth.

“What we need to look at is the different aspects of pricing - the cost that it is to put on the course, the value that it is to the student and also the value to our society as a whole and to our economy for the future.

“There are some subjects, some areas both in higher education and technical education where we are going to need more of those coming forward in the future because of the changes, because of the new challenges in the world economy.”

He suggested interest rates on student loans would also be looked at The panel carrying out the review could look at all aspects of tertiary education finance including the interest rate on student loans, he suggested.

The influential Commons Treasury Select Committee has said the high interest rates - currently 6.1% - on student loans were “questionable”.

Asked if the review could cover the possibility of a graduate tax rather than the existing system he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show it would “look at alternatives”.

But he added: “We think it’s right that if you benefit from a university degree you should make a contribution.

“That is what this current system does. What we are doing in the review is looking at how that system works, making sure there are alternatives, making sure there is more variety.