UK: Tuition Fees Freezing & Threshold Are Under Negotiations

The two parties, the Labour and the Conservative, are issuing statements about students' tuition fees in the UK. Economic-wise, the conservative party is establishing a new policy that will benefit low-earning graduates immediately, yet, will not diminish the burden of tuition fees for the current students.

Alistair Jarvis, the Chief executive of Universities UK, claims that maintenance grants should be brought back by the government for low-income students, and to lessen the interest rates for low and medium earners. Mr Jarvis said: "We also need to do more to reverse the worrying decline in the numbers of part-time and mature students."

The Prime Minister, after listening to young voters' suggestions, pledged that the whole student finance system needs to be reviewed, and as a result, reformed. Mrs May ensured that peoples' concerns should be considered and that the government will be inspecting how the system works. Tuition fees will be frozen at 9,250 per year until 2019, rather than increasing by £250, as the Prime Minister stated. She also announced that making repayments will not take place until graduates' earnings rise from £21,000 to £25,000.

She said: “Too many young people fear they are going to be worse off than their parents.”

“We have listened to those concerns, and we are going to act to offer a fairer deal for students and young people.”

The Labour Party, of course, interpreted May's pledges as a "desperate" attempt to win young voters. However, some believe that freezing the tuition fees is a more realistic approach than writing them all off. Angela Rayner, Labour’s shadow education secretary, said the move was “a desperate attempt by the Tories to kick the issue into the long grass”.