fees

The Union of UEA Students is fighting for free education for all, meaning that everyone has the same access to higher education, regardless of age, parental income, background, gender, race or sexuality.  Our campaign asks for higher education to be fairly and fully funded through progressive taxation, bringing an end to a market in HE. 

The current system is riddled with inequalities and students are drowning in debt.  Students have become consumers and the sector faces a bleak future of a two-tiered system, where the richest students can attend the richest universities and other insitutions, working hardest to widen partcipation in HE, are left to fold. 

Student debt has a massive impact on the student experience and means that students often work long hours to support themselves.  International students and post-grad students face a completely unregulated market, where students have to choose courses and instutions - or education at all - on the basis of whats in their wallets, rather than their heads.  Mature students struggle to balance debt and university life, while part-time students lose out every time funding is discussed on a national level. 

Not only is the Union of UEA Students opposed to market forces within the fee regime but also our organisation remains opposed to the backdoor privatisation of our campuses. Our Education is Not For Sale. We find the national trend of private companies providing English language teaching particularly worrying. INTO, a private provider of English language teaching and study skills, recently opened its new building near the UEA campus.  The Union feels that in such a climate of consumerism, where univerisities are forced to attract massive revenues from the unregulated international market, the quality of student experience for all students is being eroded.

On this site there is all sorts of information about this campaign, the wider debate about education funding and student debt, as well as information about how to get involved!

Check these out:

• The National Union of Students [NUS] recently published a brilliant critique of the current inequitable system called Broke and Broken. This publication will form the basis of the Union's local and regional fight against tuition fees. The Union of UEA Students believes that Higher Education should be paid for by progressive taxation, a position that differs somewhat from the position of NUS, however students are united in their opposition to the inherently unfair current system. We will show our opposition in the coming weeks and months,
• Get Involved: Campaign for change! From Monday 22nd September join the Broke and Broken campaign by leaving the amount of debt you think you will accrue by the end of your studies on the Wall of Debt in the Hive. Members of the Union Executive will be on hand from 12noon til 2pm each day to discuss the fees system and explain what you can do to shape the campaign in the months ahead. The total amount will then be presented to the Vice Chancellor here at UEA, Professor Bill Macmillan. 

     The "wall of debt" has received substantial media coverage:

     in the Eastern Daily Press: Cherie Blair snubs UEA students' debt wall

     on the Politics Show East: 

     and on Look East.

• Read the Higher Education Policy Institute's report that calls for a nationalised student bursary system. The current system compounds inequalities with the poorer institutions only able to give out small bursaries. Rich elite institutions have large pots of money available to distribute between a very small number of students from lower socio-economc backgrounds.

• Read about some of the debate happening in government and on the national scene about education funding in a collection of essays commissioned by the National Union of Students.

Featuring essays from:
Bill Rammell MP, DIUS Minister
David Willetts MP, Conservative Shadow DIUS Secretary
Sarah Teather MP, Liberal Democrat DIUS Secretary
Diana Warwick, Chief Executive, Universities UK
Pam Tatlow, Chief Executive, CMU Group of Universities
Paul Mackney, former General Secretary, UCU
Dr. Steve Wharton, former Joint President, UCU
Wes Streeting, former Vice President (Higher Education), NUS

• Find out about what financial support you are entitled to, using these helpful sheets about applying for financial help from NUS.  Confused about what you are enititled to?  Get in touch with the Union Advice Centre.
  
• Confused about the status quo?  Check out this handy guide to the current system of top-up fees, introduced in 2006.
• The Union has gained the support of the campus trade unions and university staff in its campaign. In June 2008 the Assembly of UEA staff  overwhelmingly supported a motion entitled UEA Not for Sale that laid out our thinking.
  
• Check out information about the 2009 review of variable fees
• See some of the useful links, resources and articles that we're collating about education funding.
  
• Want to get involved in this campaign?  Send an email to David Sheppard, the Academic Officer on su.academic@uea.ac.uk