Tuition Fees Hikes Instigate Protests in UK

Agents Provocateurs Turn Tuition Protest into Violent Melee

November 11, 2010

Infowars.com - Once again, dispatched agents provocateurs have turned a peaceful protest into a property-destroying circus sideshow.

“It was supposed to be a day of peaceful protest, with students exercising their democratic right to demonstrate against soaring university fees,” reports the Daily Mail. “But anarchists hijacked the event, setting off the most violent scenes of student unrest seen in Britain for decades.

Militants from far-Left groups whipped up a mix of middle-class students and younger college and school pupils into a frenzy.”

Back in the day anarchists would have criticized the very idea of state-run universities and would have denounced the act of stealing money from one segment of society to pay the tuition of another. Now balaclava-clad anarchists are the vanguard of those resentful of the fact the free lunch is over and the state cannot afford to continue this educational boondoggle.

So-called anarchists apparently no longer support the philosophy that the authority of the state has no place in conduct of human relations, including education. Anarchism today translates into mindless property destruction by dim-witted hooligans. It is used as justification by the state to attack “democratic” protesters and minimize their minor disagreements with the government and its institutions.

College Tuition Costs Climbing Again This Fall

October 28, 2010

Associated Press - College tuition costs shot up again this fall, and students and their families are leaning more on the federal government to make higher education more affordable in tough economic times, according to two reports issued Thursday.

At public four-year schools, many of them ravaged by state budget cuts, average in-state tuition and fees this fall rose 7.9 percent, or $555, to $7,605, according to the College Board's "Trends in College Pricing."

The average sticker price at private nonprofit colleges increased 4.5 percent, or $1,164, to $27,293.

Massive government subsidies and aid from schools helped keep in check the actual price many students pay. But experts caution that federal aid can only do so much and that even higher tuition is likely unless state appropriations rebound or colleges drastically cut costs.

"Just when Americans need college the most, many are finding it increasingly difficult to afford," said Molly Corbett Broad, president of the American Council on Education.

When adjusted for inflation, the tuition increases this fall amount to 6.6 percent at public four-year colleges and 3.2 percent at private ones, according to the College Board.

Many students are finding relief in expanded federal aid, including tax credits, veterans' benefits and a record expansion of the Pell Grant program for low-income students. In 2009-10, 7.7 million students received $28.2 billion in Pell Grants - an increase of almost $10 billion from the year before, according to a companion College Board report, "Trends in Student Aid."

Even so, the maximum Pell grant covers just 34 percent of the average cost of attending a public four-year college, down from 45 percent two decades ago.

Students 'paying less'

For now, government subsidies and aid from schools are helping hold down net tuition and fees — the actual cost students pay when grants and tax breaks are factored in.

Estimated average net tuition and fees this fall at public four-year colleges were $1,540, while at private colleges they were $11,320. Both are up from last year, but below what students paid five years ago.

"Despite the fact sticker prices have gone way up, there is so much grant aid out there that many students are really paying less than they did before," said Sandy Baum, a senior policy analyst for the College Board and a Skidmore College economics professor.

That's also contributed to a growing gap between those who receive aid and the one-third of full-time students who pay full freight for college, the report says.

Patrick Callan, president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, said it's important to note that tuition is climbing after a decade in which family income did not rise for 90 percent of Americans, and at a time when many areas of the country face high unemployment.

"We're kind of on a national treadmill," Callan said. "We're putting additional aid in that is helping to buffer some students from the severity of this. But the tuition increases and the bad economy are raising the need for financial aid much faster than our investment in aid is moving."

The student aid report found that grant aid per full-time undergraduate student increased by an estimated 22 percent from 2008-2009, while federal loans increased 9 percent.

The Obama administration's restructuring of the federal student loan program this year will direct more money to Pell Grants and tie future increases in the maximum grant to inflation.

But college officials say the impact will be minimal because next year's increase is small and tuition is rising faster than inflation.

Most students attend public schools, and states continue to cut appropriations.

After adjusting for inflation, per-student state spending on higher education dropped by nearly 9 percent in 2008-09 and by another 5 percent in 2009-10 — and that spending includes soon-to-expire federal stimulus money.

Community colleges, which educate about 40 percent of college students, remain affordable, with tuition averaging $2,713. Lower income students receive enough aid to attend essentially for free.

Still, tuition rose 6 percent at public two-year colleges. State and local budget cuts paired with skyrocketing enrollment have prompted some schools to cut courses and limit enrollment.

The priciest private colleges are creeping closer to shattering the $60,000 ceiling in total cost to attend.

David Warren, president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, emphasized net tuition and fees have declined 7.4 percent in the past decade in inflation-adjusted dollars because colleges are expanding student aid.

"Every institution that I talk to understands the absolutely critical role of aid and it's going to be the thing they try to hold at the top of the list of priorities," Warren said.

On average, about 55 percent of bachelor's degree recipients at public colleges borrow money, and their debt is $19,800 by graduation, the College Board found.

Thousands of UK Students Protest Tuition Fees Hike

November 10, 2010

Associated Press – Tens of thousands of students marched noisily through London on Wednesday against plans to triple university tuition fees, and some tried to occupy the headquarters of the governing Conservative Party, in the largest street protest yet against the government's sweeping austerity measures.

Organizers said 50,000 students, lecturers and supporters were demonstrating against plans to raise the cost of studying at a university to 9,000 pounds ($14,000) a year — three times the current rate.

Violence flared as a handful of people smashed windows in a high-rise building that houses Conservative headquarters, as others lit a bonfire of placards outside the building.

Office workers were evacuated as several dozen protesters managed to get into the lobby, chanting "Tories Out," while outside police faced off against a crowd that occasionally hurled food, soda cans and placards.

"We are destroying the building just like they are destroying our chances of affording higher education," said Corin Parkin, 20, a student at London's City University.

Organizers condemned the violence.

Sally Hunt, general secretary of faculty group the University and College Union, said "the actions of a minority, out of 50,000 people, is regrettable."

Click here to see photos of the student protest

Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Elsewhere, protesters were peaceful but determined.

"I am here because it is important that students stand up and shout about what is going on," said Anna Tennant-Siren, a student at the University of Ulster in Coleraine, said: "Politicians don't seem to care. They should be taking money from people who earn seven-figure salaries, not from students who don't have any money."

Frances O'Grady, of the Trades Union Congress, said the hike would make colleges "no-go zones for young people from ordinary backgrounds."

"This is about turning colleges and universities from learning institutions into finishing schools for the rich," she said.

Britain's Liberal Democrats, who are part of the coalition government with the Conservatives, pledged during the country's election campaign to abolish fees.

Protest leaders said they would attempt to use recall powers to oust lawmakers who break campaign promises on the issue.

The National Union of Students said it would try to recall legislators from the party who vote in favor on the hike.

"We will not tolerate the previous generation passing on its debts to the next, nor will we pick up the bill to access a college and university education that was funded for them," said union president Aaron Porter.

While British tuition fees are modest compared to those at some U.S. colleges, British universities are public institutions. Opponents of the tuition increase have pointed out that Prime Minister David Cameron and other members of the government attended elite universities such as Oxford and Cambridge at a time when university education was free.

The previous Labour government of Prime Minister Tony Blair introduced the first fees for students soon after it was elected in 1997. Scotland abolished tuition fees in 2000, and in the rest of Britain the cost is capped at about 3,000 pounds ($4,800) a year.

Prime Minister David Cameron's government plans to triple that and cut funding to universities as it strives to slash 81 billion pounds ($128 billion) from public expenditure over the next four years.