The NUS has now published the names of 1,000+ parliamentary candidates who have signed their pledge. This includes, so far, 200 Labour, 400 Liberal Democrat, 13 Conservative, 200 Green, and 200 UKIP candidates. The pledge reads: ‘I pledge to vote against any increase in fees in the next parliament and to pressure the government to [...]

Education issues are largely devolved in both Wales and Scotland. However there are some issues which are covered in the Plaid Cymru and SNP mafestos: Plaid Cymru: We support a Welsh-language Coleg Ffederal with an independent stream of funding and an independent student register. We will also continue to campaign for a National Veterinary School for Wales. We [...]

The Liberal Democrat manifesto has now been published. This is what they say about post-16 education. On science and research they say: creating a dynamic environment for science and innovation Britain’s future depends on a vibrant research base and the ability of innovators to exploit the country’s intellectual capital to generate new homegrown high tech [...]

UCU today demanded that the Conservative Party comes clean on its plans for university funding after David Cameron told the Today Programme that university fees were here to stay. The Tory leader’s comments appear to put him at odds with his universities secretary, David Willetts, who said recently that universities had not yet made the [...]

UCU launched its proposal for a Business Education Tax (BET) in the House of Commons on 3 March. The report is intended to re-open the debate on how we rebalance the contribution to university funding between, as Lord Dearing said, the state, the individual and the employer. UCU was joined by think tank Compass in [...]

A report released today by UCU recommends raising the level of corporation tax in the UK to the G7 countries’ average to raise enough money to abolish all university tuition fees.