The National Union of Students has been criticised over a memo advising student representatives not to campaign over increased tuition fees.
Instead, the memo recommends that student leaders should “engage” with university leaders and become “heavily included in the [decision-making] process.” It then goes on to outline, in detail, the new system which is capped at £9000 instead of the current £3290.
The document also describes the new fees system as “relatively progressive,” despite the fact that the NUS has publicly opposed the system since its inception last year. The leaked memo has therefore provoked outrage from the student community. Rahul Mansigani, NUS president at Cambridge university, told the BBC: “It is disappointing that anyone views as progressive a scheme that the NUS [and] students up and down the country have campaigned against.”
This is not the first time the NUS has come under attack over its handling of tuition fees. In January, NUS president Aaron Porter found himself criticised by student demonstrators demanding a more militant leadership. He had earlier admitted to “dithering” over the issue.
Earlier this week, the Imperial College London became the first university to officially announce that it wants to charge for the maximum level of fees, with both Oxford and Cambridge set to follow suit.
It is anticipated that most universities, including NTU, will have set their fees for the 2012-2013 academic year by the end of March. As yet, the Nottingham Trent Student Union has not commented on how much money NTU will be charging per year.
Alexander Page
Image: public-domain-image.com
Tags: aaron porter, ntsu, nus, tuition fees
Anxious to find out how much NTU will be charging as I just graduated.