Winner of Best Article at The 2011 Demon Media Awards.
By Samson Dada
Tuesday 8 February 2011
Go to Page 6 to read my article.
Outspoken shadow health minister Liz Kendall has defended her decision not to sign the pledge against the trebling of tuition fees.
De Montfort University Students’ Union was disappointed that Ms Kendall did not sign the pledge against the trebling of tuition fees.
In an interview at her Leicester constituency surgery, she said: “I voted against the rise in tuition fees and I did not sign the pledge because Labour began the Browne Review. I did not want to make a promise I was not 100 per cent certain I could keep.”
She added: “Trebling of tuition fees is wrong for students and wrong for the economy.”
Ms Kendall criticised the Liberal Democrats’ categorical pledge during the general election campaign to “resist and campaign” against any increases in tuition fees.
“Politicians should not make promises they cannot keep just to win cheap votes like Nick Clegg did. We now know that he knew that committing his party to phasing out tuition fees over six years was a false position, but did it anyway just to win votes.”
Ms Kendall admitted that Ed Miliband’s support of a graduate tax to replace how students repay their loans has many problems – but it remains a ‘viable’ alternative to the current system where students repay their loans when they earn over £21,000 a year.
“The advantage of a graduate contribution is that the more you earn, the more you pay, but there are difficulties with the graduate tax which is that people significantly pay more than the cost of their course; Graduates can move abroad and the Treasury collect the money rather than the money being given to universities.
“While the graduate tax has complications, we must find a better system than the one we currently have.”
She also spoke passionately about her desire to see social mobility increase in the United Kingdom.
Speaking after a lecture at De Monfort University, she said: “getting on in life should not just be the preserve of the very rich.”
The lecture, called “Social Mobility: Where next”? was about how every child should fulfill their potential regardless of their social and economic background.
She said that investing in the child’s early years was critical to their future educational attainment.
“When I was Director of the Maternity Alliance charity, I did a lot of work around pregnancy which is critical in shaping a child’s later life chances. By the time, kids reach the age of eight, less talented put better off kids are doing better than really talented, poorer kids,” she said.
She said that universities must do more to encourage students from the poorest households to attend university.
“There is a lot more that universities can do to reach students from disadvantaged backgrounds, who we know do incredibly well at university – if they get the chance.”
She added: “They may not always get the best A-Level grades, but when they get to university they often outperform the children from much better off families.”
When asked about whether she is concerned that politics is dominated by public school educated, Oxbridge graduates, Ms Kendall said : “It is a problem if people who make decisions which affect our lives are from a narrow background.
“The danger is that they do not understand the lives of other groups of people, and can possibly make poor decisions”
“Alan Milburn’s report about social mobility talked about how if a student knows other doctors and lawyers, or their parents do, then they can secure work placements in these professions, whereas someone without connections will find it difficult to find work placements.”
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