Fee Foes' Five Thumbs

[steepholm]

It's welcome (and embarrassing for the Westminster government) that the Welsh Assembly has announced that it will hold fees for Welsh students to their current levels, subsidising them if they choose to go to a more expensive university elsewhere in the UK. For one thing, it rather gives the lie to Clegg 'n' Cable's bleating about how the country can't afford not to raise fees. I'd be all in favour of the English Assembly making a similar declaration, except - oh yes, I forgot, England isn't big enough to warrant an Assembly. Or it's too big. Or something.

One strange side effect is that while English, Scottish and Northern Irish students studying at Welsh universities will have to pay the full £6-9,000pa, EU students from outside the United Kingdom will only be charged the £3,000 or so currently being levied on Welsh students. This is because EU law forbids discrimination in fees between states - but not within states. Thus, the Welsh taxpayer will be subsidising not only Welsh students at English universities, but French and German students at Welsh universities. I wonder how that will go down in Llanelli?

When the lunacy of our constitutional arrangements intersects with the hypocrisy of our higher education funding system and the bureaucracy of the European Union, you know that rational government remains some little distance off.

Comments

[calimac.livejournal.com]

That's very funny, and in political format reminds me of the attempts by the California state government to rationalize marijuana control in the teeth of the federal government's insistence that it's evil-evil.

[mraltariel.livejournal.com]

Actually, on average it will be the south-east-English taxpayer doing the subsidising of the Welsh students, as the budget comes from general UK taxation, not some hypothecated Welsh-only tax; the Welsh budget is about £8-9bn more than Welsh taxation, IIRC.

I suppose you could claw that back and subsidise the future earnings of salary-earning graduates (given that the whole point is that students don't pay anything when they are students), but that doesn't seem fair on the poor, or the sick or whatever else the Welsh assembly is spending that money on.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

You're right of course about much of the Welsh budget coming out of the general coffers, which adds yet another ply of irony to the whole situation. It would be interesting to see what would happen if the Assembly got the tax-raising powers being demanded by Plaid Cymru.

The simplest solution, I suggest, is to recognize that, just as general literacy is to the benefit of society as well as of the individuals who are able to read and write (hence state-funded primary education) so it's to society's benefit to have graduates (including the doctors who are going to be treating the sick, etc.), and that the best way to fund such things is therefore through tax. If graduates are really going to earn so much money because of having degrees, then raising income tax will catch them in any case.

[sheenaghpugh]

It's not so much French and German students that matter; it's Chinese students on business studies courses; they give unis an awful lot of revenue (not to mention hassle, because they think plagiarism = deference to written authority and are quite hurt and annoyed when told they can't do it). I suspect Glamorgan in particular will be happy if they get more of them who would otherwise have gone to England.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Will it make a difference to them, though? I assume that, not being in the EU, Welsh universities (like English ones) will charge them top dollar.

[sheenaghpugh]

- sorry that was me, didn't realise i wasn't logged in

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know that foreign students are the universities' cash cows - but I don't see how this decision of the Welsh Assembly is going to make a Chinese student more, or less, likely to pick a Welsh uni over an English one. It'll cost them the same either way.

On the other hand, it's possible that Welsh unis may now get a far larger proportion of the (admittedly smaller) pool of EU applicants, once they realise that the Welsh Assembly will be subsidising them. If I were a Spanish student coming to study in the UK I'd certainly pick Cardiff over Bristol if it was going to save me about £15,000.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

I think in Llanelli they won't mind subsidising European students as long as they're doing one in the eye of the English.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I suspect you're right about that.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

That's completely nuts!!

[leelowe.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's nuts, but it's very nice to know, since my daughter is thinking about spending some time at a UK university! (And do keep in mind that French and German universities do plenty of subsidising of foreign students too, including British ones.)

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Glad to be of service! ;)

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

An academic I know told me a few years back that my old Alma Mater was actively encouraging foreign postgrads in preference to the locals because they can rake in more money that way...

STUDENTS AS THE TOUCHSTONE OF CIVILIZATION’S DEVELOPMENT

[win-ru.livejournal.com]

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