27 February 2015 
Matt Sisson, Projects and Membership Manager
Perhaps the biggest news this week has been Labour’s long-awaited announcement that it will reduce tuition fees to £6,000 a year should it be elected. After an extended game of ‘Will they – won’t they?’, the Labour leader Ed Milliband finally stood in front of the cameras on Friday to make the promise, emphasising that it would be non-negotiable in any post-election coalition deals.
Among the details; universities are set to receive an extra £2.7billion a year to meet the shortfall from the fee reduction, graduates earning over £42,000 will face higher interest rates on repayments, and there will be an increase of non-repayable maintenance grants for poorer students by £400 per year. Labour plan to pay for the combined deal by reducing pension tax reliefs.
A wide range of responses and commentary, including from UUK, NUS, the Russell Group, and others, was captured throughout the day on the WonkHE web blog. There are also round-ups from the Guardian website and the Times Higher.
